European Athletics (EA) – News – Johnson-Thompson, Terzic, Fydorov shine on the final day

The curtain came down today on the ninth European Athletics U23 championships in Tampere, Finland 11 – 14 July.

With a total of 21 medals, Russia topped the medal table winning six more than Great Britain who were second by virtue of more silvers than Germany, though they had the same number of golds – five. Russia won nine golds.

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Johnson-Thompson finds it easy
She may not have competed at a Heptathlon all season, but it hardly mattered as Katerina Johnson-Thomson of Great Britain took gold with a score of 6215.
Silver went to Germany's Kira Biesenbach while the Ukraine's Anastasiya Mokhnyuk moved back into bronze in the final event.

The score represents the Briton's third best score ever behind her London Olympic total of 6267. She becomes the first Briton to win this event at the U23 Championships.

En route to gold, Johnson-Thompson equalled her best in the hurdles and set a lifetime best in the 200m.

Though under par after her ankle injury at Loughborough a week before she was due to compete in Goetzis, the Briton won in Tampere by the clear margin of over 265 points.

On the final day Johnson-Thompson came out for her first Long Jump and registered a safety first 6.21 which turned out to be the second best of the round. Neither Mokhnyuk nor Anouk Vetter of the Netherlands had gone over 6m so the Briton had momentarily extended her lead.

For her second jump, Johnson-Thompson checked her stride just before the line but still improved to 6.28, so far the furthest anyone had gone. Vetter set a PB but at 5.88 it was not going to threaten the leader.

The Briton left her best until last. Hitting the board to perfection she launched herself to the longest of the day, 6.39 for 972 points and 4733 in total. Job done.
By virtue of the second longest jump, Biesenbach was now in second overall, 170 points behind Johnson-Thomson. Vetter was third 247 points down and Mokhnyuk, 259 adrift, had slipped to fourth.

After the Javelin the only change was that Vetter had withdrawn from the competition and Germany's Carolin Schaefer had moved into the bronze medal position.

Johnson-Thompson who had not thrown a javelin all season except in training, registered 36.61 for 602 points. She now had an unassailable lead of 195 going into the final event.

Hannes finds it easy

Pieter-Jan Hannes of Belgium won the 1500m final as he pleased in 3:43.83 with Britain's Charlie Grice getting silver and Spain's Alberto Imedio collecting bronze on the final day of the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tampere on Sunday.

It was the Belgian who led for the first two laps in 62.45 and 2:05.83 with the whole field bunched.

Lying fourth at this stage was Filip Ingebrigsten and there was some speculation as to whether he possessed the same finishing kick as his brother Henrik who had
fallen in his heat and failed to make the final.

As the pace was wound up with 200m to go, Hannes lengthened his stride and it was clear that no one could go with him. Grice waited until the straight to get up into second while Imedio outsprinted Ireland's Paul Robinson for bronze.

It is the first gold at this distance that Belgium have ever won at these championships. In 1999 Gert Van Liefers took silver.

Merzoughi gold as Tsenov is disqualified
Spain's Abdelaziz Merzoughi took steeplechase gold with Italy's Giuseppe Gerratana in silver and France's Tanguy Pepiot bronze.

For the first 2000m it looked as though Fernando Carro of Spain was going to run away with it.

He shot into a clear lead with the field unsure how to respond. But the Spaniard just got on with it, covering the first 1000m in 2:46.35 with his pursuers 50m in arrears and no one interested in closing the gap.

Pepiot and Merzoughi seemed to be the only ones showing any interest but as 2000m was reached in 5:44.99 it was still Carro maintaining his metronomic pace.
It was clear from the times, though, that Carro was starting to slow and as he did, the field closed in and with 500m to go swallowed him up.

At the bell in around 7:30, Mitko Tsenov of Bulgaria (DQ'd for stepping on the infield) took off with Merzhoughi in pursuit and the Bulgarian kept going to the line.

Gerratana was trailing Pepiot at this point but with 100m to go he sprinted past.

Great Britain set championship record
A brilliant opening leg from Deji Tobais coupled with slick changeovers and a storming final straight from the 100m champion, Adam Gemili, saw the Great Britain quartet snatch gold in dramatic fashion.

The winning time of 38.77 erased by 0.18 the championship record held by France since Erfurt 2005.

Silver went to Poland just 0.04 down while Spain, out in lane eight, collected bronze.

It was a great run on the anchor leg from the Long Jump champion, Eusebio Cáceres, who never gave up the chase that brought Spain home by 0.01 over Germany.

It was so close at the end that Gemili was not sure he had crossed the line first but then the results flashed up and he had his second gold of the week and some measure of consolation for his failure to take a medal at the 200m.

Uglov roars home
A barnstorming run from 400m medallist, Nikita Uglov, gave Russian gold in the 4x400m. Silver went to Belgium with Italy in bronze.

400m champion Lev Mosin led the Russians off on the first leg but it was Belgium who changed over first in 45.48.

At the second changeover it was Belgium who handed over in the lead but it was tight and Uglov capitalised by emerging from the melée in a lead that he was not to surrender.

Amels a first for Netherlands
He had one failure at 2.18, two at 2.21, another at 2.24 but Douwe Amels of the Netherlands still set a lifetime best of 2.28 to take gold.

In all, the winner established three career bests on his way to gold. His previous record stood at 2.21 from last year.

His previous outdoor highest coming this year into Tampere was 2.15 from the Dublin European team championships. Small wonder he jumped for joy in the pouring rain that was now coming down.

Silver went to Daniil Tsyplakov of Russia and bronze was shared between Adonios Mastoras of Greece and Britain's Allen Smith who both set lifetime bests of 2.26.
This was Holland's first medal of any kind at the High Jump at the U23 championships.

Ivakin over Sobera
Anton Ivakin clinched gold with a clearance of 5.60m, while Robert Sobera of Poland took silver and bronze went to both France's Valentin Lavillenie and Germany's Daniel Clemens.

World junior champion three years ago, Ivakin beat Sobera by virtue of going over 5.60 at the second attempt, while the Pole had required all three.
Neither man was able to clear 5.65 which would have represented a lifetime best for the Russian.

Lavillenie has now a better record in this competition than his more illustrious brother, Renaud, who could finish no higher than 10th in Debrecen 2009.
Fydorov 17.13

All five of Aleksey Fyodorov's valid jumps would have won this title. In the end it was his 17.13 of round three that will go into the record books.

Gaetan Saku Bafuanga of France took silver with a fourth round 16.57 while bronze went to Russia's Artem Primak on 16.49.

Fyodorov won silver last time round in Ostrava, two years after collecting European junior gold. He is also this year's World University Games silver medallist.

His three best jumps of this final were 17.13, 17.10 and 17.08.

Terzic sprints away with it
With an impeccably judged race Amela Terzic of Serbia won the women's 1500m final in 4:05.69, a national record.

Employing the same tactics as she had used to run way with the European junior cross country title in Budapest in December, Terzic swept into the lead with 200m and extended her lead to the finish.

Silver went to Germany's Corinna Harrer with Britain's Laura Muir taking bronze.
As they crossed the finish line with three to go, it was the Turk Elif Karabulut in the lead with Harrer and Maureen Koster alongside. The first lap was reached in 65.62 with Terzic lying fourth and Muir moving up to join her.

The 800m mark in 2:14.63 was the signal for Harrer to shoot into the lead followed by Terzic and Muir.

At 1200m reached in 3:19.50 it was still the German in the lead with Koster and Anna Shchagina of Russia closing. At this stage an eager Koster got too close to Muir, tripped on her heel and brought the Russian down with her.
Fortunately for Muir she was not effected and she stayed on her feet to take bronze while Terzic was away extending her lead to the line.

Bulut at a canter
Turkey's Gamze Bulut, the Olympic 1500m silver medallist, simply ran away from the field to take gold by 50m from the defending champion, Layes Abdullayeva of Azerbaijan.

Running a well-judged race Britain's Kate Avery clinched bronze.

Abdullayeva led the field through the first kilometre and looked set to repeat her runaway win from Ostrava. It was a runaway win, but not from the Azerbaijani as Bulut had other ideas.

Letting Abdullayeva lead through the first 1000m in 3:11.49, Bulut then just took off, increased the pace, covered the third kilometre in a shade over 3mins and the race was hers.

With no competitions at all this season to judge her form, it was impossible to know how Bulut would perform, but she soon dispelled any doubts. She improved her lifetime best set last year by just over 4sec.

Germany triumph in sprint relay
Germany ran out clear winners in 43.29 from Great Britain over half a second down.

Bronze went to Italy just 0.03 behind the British quartet.

Bringing the baton home for Britain, Jodie Williams picked up her third medal of these championships.

That makes Williams the fifth woman to take three medals at the European U23 championships, the most by a British woman and overtaking Allison Curbishley's two in 1997.

4x400m gold for Poland
Poland, 3:29.74, beat Romania while France took bronze while Italy were disqualified.

Both Poland and Romania set national U23 records.

Amazing Malkus
What a time Lena Malkus of Germany chose to set a lifetime best! Entering the final round of the Long Jump lying in fourth she had yet to go beyond 6.56, but she dramatically improved that to shoot out to 6.76. That represented an improvement of 4cm on her previous best and the gold medal.

Silver went to Krystyna Hryshutyna of the Ukraine with bronze going to the Netherlands Dafne Schippers to add to her 100m gold.

In the absence of European number two this year, Lorraine Ugen, who did not come out for the final, the first round saw Schippers set a career best of 6.58, an improvement of 7cm on her previous best to take the lead.

The only rival who came close was Malkus, just 3cm short. But there was danger behind because at 1cm down on the German was Hryshutyna.

Lena Muze of Latvia competes in the javelin final.

At the half way mark there was no change in the top three but then out came Hryshutyna in the fourth round to improve her season's best by 5cm to register 6.61 for the lead.

Schippers tried to respond by using her 100m speed to hurtle down the runway, but overstepped the mark in her eagerness to counter attack.

Then the stage was set for Malkus's final say in the matter. Schippers fouled again and the Ukrainian could manage no better than 6.25.

German one-two
Once she went into the lead in the Discus final, there was no one else that came close to matching Anna Rüh's 61.45 from round three. Silver went to team-mate Shanice Craft, while Portugal's Irina Rodrigues captured bronze.

Both Rüh and Craft came out for their first effort and walloped the implement well over 60m but outside the sector. Since no one else had reached 52m both attempts had to be regarded like snipers finding their range. Half the field fouled their first attempts.

For her second, Rüh sent the implement whirring down the middle just short of the 60m line, Craft following suit. Battle was joined but neither had yet really connected.

With a safety shot on the board, Rüh gave her third attempt some bite and reached 61.45, while Craft fell short of the 60m line again. In third at this stage was Greece's Hristina Anagnostopoulou on 53.45, but not for long as German third-string Kristin Pudenz, facing elimination if she did not connect, gave Germany a full house with 55.31.

In round five Rodrigues came up with 56.80 to spoil the symmetry while an anxious Pudenz sent one crashing into the netting. Rüh then repeated her lead effort, spreading her hands wide to her coach in frustration.

In the final round there was to be no change as neither Anagnostopoulu nor Pudenz could overtake the Portuguese and gold went to the competition's best exponent.

Muze takes the javelin
Latvia's Lina Muze led the qualifiers and she stayed at the head of the field in the final to take gold with a distance of 58.61.

Germany's Lina Mayer took silver with 55.43 while Serbia's Marija Vucenovic secured bronze.

The Latvian won European junior silver two years ago, one year after taking silver at the World junior championships.

This season she threw a season's best 59.30 at Rome's Golden Gala. She has an all-time best of 61.04 from last year.

 

 European Athletics (EA) – News