European Athletics – German stars hopes to seize on the Braunschweig noise

Germany were the first winners of this competition back in Leiria in 2009 but Russia have dominated it ever since.

But on Saturday and Sunday, in front of a crowd that could be between 20,000-30,000, the German athletes know how much that will spur them on.

Storl, the double shot put world champion and European champion, and javelin thrower Stahl, the 2010 European champion, spoke on Friday morning at the official press conference ahead of the event which is taking place in their own country for the first time.

Back in 2009, when Berlin staged the IAAF World Championships, Stahl, just 23 at the time, was sixth in the final, 12 months before winning the European title in Barcelona.

She said: "It was the best experience of competition, there were maybe 40,000 people in the qualification in the morning. I expect 20,000-30,000 at the weekend and it will be a great event for us."

Storl, who was just 19 in 2009 and fresh from winning the European Athletics Junior gold, was 27th in qualifying then and has progressed to win the World title on the next two occasions.

He said: "Berlin was a big experience for me and I hope tomorrow and Sunday it will be the same."

The 12 teams in Braunschweig are the Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine.

And the city is ready for one of the most exciting events on the athletics calendar because of it being all about the team. Every race, every throw, every jump and every hurdle cleared can mean an extra point. And the drama can be there from the start to the finish, with both men's and women's scores combined.

Russia won in Gateshead last year by just a mere seven points from Germany who will be a force again, while France have an exceptionally strong team.

They include pole vault world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie and on Friday, their discus world silver medallist Melina Robert-Michon spoke of the variety within their squad.

"We have a good French team," said Robert-Michon. "We have a mix between young athletes like Pascal Martinot-Lagarde and Jimmy Vicaut and experienced athletes like me. It is a very good year for French athletes."

When Russia won last year with 354.5 points, they completed a hat-trick of titles as Germany were second with 347.5 followed by Britain and then France with 310.5.

The Russians will have strength throughout including European 110m hurdles champion Sergey Shubenkov who could be involved in one of the races of the weekend.

The top three in the European Athletics rankings all meet as Shubenkov, who is third on that list with a 2014 best of 13.39, faces Martinot-Lagarde, who has run 13.12, while Britain's Will Sharman has 13.28.

The long jump will see Britain's Olympic champion Greg Rutherford face Germany's Christian Reif and the home crowd will have much to cheer too in the discus as Olympic and triple world champion Robert Harting will be chasing maximum points, but it will be a tough competition as he faces Poland's European champion Piotr Malachowski.

Storl won the shot put in Gateshead by just 18 centimetres with 20.47m from Poland's Tomas Majewski and the pair will renew their rivalry here.

Majewski is hopeful that Poland – who were fifth in 2013 with 305.5 – can make their mark across the board and he said: "We have a strong team, and our goal is to fight for bronze. Our statistician has checked that and we have a great chance for bronze."

As for Stahl, she has quite an act to follow as fellow German and World champion Christina Obergfoll, who is not competing because she is pregnant, has won all four previous javelin events at the European Athletics Team Championships.

On top of that, Stahl will be facing World record-holder Barbora Spotakova, of the Czech Republic, who is back this year having herself given birth to a son last September.

Stahl, who leads the European Athletics rankings with 67.32m from Spotakova with 66.43m, will take it all in her stride and said: "It is my first European Team competition, but it is not my first competition. I know what I have to do. I will do my best."
And she hopes the home crowd will be there inspiring her all the way.

 

European Athletics