European Athletics – News – Hat-trick of walking success for the hosts

Russia celebrated their first gold medal of their World Championships as Aleksandr Ivanov produced a brilliant performance to win the 20km walk in Moscow – and beat the Olympic champion in the process.

And his victory maintained a magnificent record for the country because it was the third successive time they had won this event.

No wonder Ivanov, 20, lapped up every moment of his win in his first major senior championship, cheered by the home crowd in a race full of drama which had seen Guatemala's Olympic silver medallist Erick Barrondo told to stop for a third foul with less than 3km to go.

Ivanov led at that stage but Barrondo was closing.

Yet the Russian was in such a zone he did not even know his closest rival was out, progressing to win in 1:20:58 from the man who won in London last year – China's Ding Chen. He was second in 1:21:09 with Spain's Miguel Angel Lopez third in 1:21:21.

It was a personal best for Ivanov, a year on from winning silver over 10km at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona.

And his glory follows the successes of Valeriy Borchin who won in Berlin in 2009 in 1:18:41 and then defended his title in Daegu in 2011 in 1:19:56.

Now he has set his sets on Olympic gold.

Ivanov said: "My main aim is Rio 2016. The beginning today was particularly tough but I kept telling myself keep going, you have to keep going."

It was a race which once more demonstrated the strength of race walking in Europe with Portugal's Joao Vieria fourth in 1:22:05 and Russia's Denis Strelkov fifth in 1:22:06.

Perkovic puts seal her brilliant summer
It has been some season for Croatia's discus star Sandra Perkovic and she added the World title to her Olympic and two European crowns.

As the rain descended on Moscow, Perkovic, who has been unstoppable in the IAAF Diamond League, landed gold with her second round throw of 67.99m.

Yet it was not the most consistent of displays from Perkovic who had only two more legal throws, with 67.52m in the first round and 67.80m in the fourth, and she would have held her breath as France's Melina
Robert-Michon launched a brilliant last round effort.

Her discus landed 66.28m, a national record to confirm her in the silver medal position and not too far away from Perkovic in distance as Cuba's Yarelys Barrios won bronze with 64.96m.

Schrader impresses for silver
Europe strengthened its position in men's multi-eventing as Germany's Michael Schrader built on his overnight position of third to win silver with a personal best of 8670 as America's Olympic champion Ashton Eaton won gold with 8809, the best in the world this year. Daniel Warner of Canada, was third with 8512.
Tenth at the Olympics in Beijing, this success was the greatest of Schrader's career.

Throughout the day, Schrader did his best to remain as close as he could to Eaton, who had just enough to secure another title.

But the German threw further than him in the javelin – 65.67m to 64.83 – and finished more than four minutes quicker in the final event, the 1500m, but as he was fifth in 4:25.38, Eaton's sixth in 4:29.80 brought him gold.

Spanovic makes the podium
Russia had great hopes in the women's long jump final but in the end it was Serbia's Ivana Spanovic who flew the flag for Europe as she won bronze.

American Brittney Reese was the favourite and she justified that tag by retaining her title, but only by the smallest of margins, with 7.01m from the second round, to edge out Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare who jumped 6.99m in the fifth.

But it was in that penultimate round where Spanovic set new standards for her and her country with a national record of 6.82m to land bronze thanks to a better overall series than Belarussian Volha Sudarava who had jumped the same distance.

Spanovic's 6.70m, 6.64m, 6.67m and 6.61m compared more favourably than Sudarava's 6.66m, 6.49m, 6.45m, 6.64m and 6.50m.

And it was a great day for Spanovic, 23, as she won her first senior medal having made her mark as a teenager by taking the world junior title in 2008 and the European junior silver medal in 2009.

The leading Russian was Olga Kucherenko, who had won silver in Daegu. She was fifth this time with 6.81m while double European indoor champion Darya Klishina was seventh with 6.76m. Elena Sokolova, who won silver in London, did not even make the cut, jumping a best of 6.65m in the second round to leave her ninth. But in the pole vault Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva booked her place in the final with the 4.55m needed and she will be one of eight European athletes out of a field of 12 chasing gold.

Dasaolu and Lemaitre make 100m final – but gold is back with Bolt

It has been a breakthrough year for European sprinters James Dasaolu, of Great Britain, and France's Jimmy Vicaut after breaking 10 seconds.

But on Sunday night they had mixed fortunes in Moscow.

But as Vicaut's French teammate Christophe Lemaitre made his mark again, gold went the way of you-know-who as Jamaican Usain Bolt regained the title.

Dasaolu, Europe's fastest man this summer, had squeezed into the semi-finals as the last qualifier but he was third in his semi in 9.97, to make it through as a qualifier as only the first two from each race were guaranteed a spot.

He was just ahead of Lemaitre whose 10.00 saw him through also as a fastest losers.

But Vicaut's 10.01 for third in his heat was never going to fast enough, though Bolt controlled the final as he won in 9.77.

Lemaitre was in seventh in 10.06 with Dasalou eighth on 10.21.

 

European Athletics – News