Field events at the Birmingham Europeans

M. Tentoglou is once more the king of the long jump. After a 2025 season plagued by injuries, he is back in great shape and proved this in Birmingham, winning his fourth continental title. The wind was a major perturbation for the jumpers, and I remember Tentoglou commenting that in his first jump, with a head wind, he was having trouble reaching the board. He qualified in third position, in an event that saw the exit of M. Furlani, who has not recovered from his injury, retiring after just one jump at 7.73 m. The final was a totally different affair (but not as far as the wind was concerned). Tentoglou opened with 8.27 m, but S. Ehammer riposted with 8.29 m (both jumps against a strong head wind). Then Tentoglou jumped 8.44 m on his fourth attempt, and that was that (he passed the remaining two, deeming that the opposite wind would preclude a good performance). The bronze medal went to B. Saraboyukov with 8.26 m on his last attempt.

The women’s event, both qualification and final, took place under a strong tail wind. M. Mihambo had the longest jump in the qualifiers with 7.10 m (+3.3 m/s wind), and A. de Sousa jumped 7.00 m under regular conditions. However, in the final, they both finished just outside the medals. L. Iapichino won with a single jump at 7.00 m, just 1 cm ahead of J. Sawyers, 2 cm ahead of H. Kpatcha, 4 cm ahead of de Sousa and 6 cm ahead of Mihambo. It was an incredibly interesting event, where the spectacle was won by Sawyers (a jumper I have been following over the years) and her blanket. Given the consistency of Sawyers (6.95, 6.96, 6.99, 6.92 and two marginal fouls over 7 m), she would have merited the gold medal. The women’s long jump was one more example of finalist replacement. A. Halberg Hossain was injured during the qualifiers and was replaced in the final by F. Fotopoulou, who profited to grab 8th place.

A. Díaz Hernández and P. Pichardo were the only ones over 17 m in the men’s triple jump qualifiers. In the final, the latter opened with 17.76 m, but Díaz riposted with 18.15 m, which places him fourth on the all-time best list, and backed this with a 17.78 m on his third attempt. And I must point out the 8th place of D. Tsiamis, who, at 44 years of age, reached a European final, in a discipline where he won bronze eight years ago.

The women’s triple jump saw two Italians dominate the qualifiers: E. Saraceni with 14.50 m and D. Derkach with 14.42 m. They were going to meet different lots in the final. Saraceni finished 12th with 13.48 m, while Derkach won with 14.60 m. But the real surprise came from a hitherto unknown athlete, S. Guisse. With 14.07 m, she jumped over 14 m for the first time in the qualifiers. And in the final (where all eight finishers jumped over 14 m, with the great I. Španović in 8th place), she showed her intentions with a 14.37 m on the third jump, that did not suffice for a medal, but a 14.46 m (+2.4 m/s wind) did suffice for silver. I will keep an eye open for her next year (despite her below-par performance in the Diamond League of Silesia). And I must say that I was impressed by the concentration of D. Derkach when she had already won the event and had one last jump. She was focused as if all depended on it, and only when it was over (she fouled it) did she allow herself to explode in joy.

G. Tamberi sits in 17th position on the all-time high jumpers’ list. But, for me, he is number one. He would have gone much higher than his 2.39 m personal best had he not had the injury he sustained in 2016. But he fought back and returned to win Olympic and World titles. He did not arrive in Birmingham as the favourite for the event. In fact, his 2.23 m at the qualifiers was his best season performance. But when it came to the final, he showed his unique class. He jumped successively 2.18, 2.23, 2.27 and 2.30 m, trailing Doroshchuk on count-back, but when the bar was raised to 2.32 m, he was the only one to go over, winning his fourth European title. The women’s high jump was a low-key event. A. Topić had some back problems and bowed out at 1.87 m. I. Gerashchenko could not go higher than 1.92 m, and the medals went to jumpers who could master 1.95 m or higher. M. Vuković won her first major medal, a bronze, losing silver on count-back to M. Zodzik. Y. Mahuchikh, clearly not in top shape, still managed to win, clearing 1.97 m.

A height of 5.60 m was enough to gain access to the men’s pole vault final, but was too high for T. Collet, E. Sasma and M. Vloon, who were expected to play some role there. The Collet family was not totally frustrated, since the younger brother, Mathieu, did manage to qualify and went on to finish 4th, just behind another frenchman, the talented B. Thierry, who obtained bronze with 5.85 m. S. Guttormsen had a below-par competition, failed twice at 5.85 m, gambled unsuccessfully with his last jump at 5.95 m and had to content himself with 6th place. As for the first two, well, by now the scenario is familiar. Both Karalis and Duplantis jumped 6 m. And when Duplantis jumped 6.10 m and 6.15 m, Karalis tried to go higher, but 6.20 m turned out to be too high for him. (Not for long. In the Zürich Diamond League, Duplantis, Karalis and Guttormsen staged the highest pole vault competition ever, with 6.25, 6.20 and 6.00 m respectively, the first two making three attempts at a would-be world record 6.32 m). The women’s pole vault was not of the same calibre as the men’s. (In fact, this is a remark that applies to this event at a global, world, level). A. Moser won with 4.80 m, ahead of W. Heltelä (Murto) with 4.75 m. M. J. Bonin had a so-so competition but managed to pass over 4.70 m on her second attempt, snatching bronze from her team-mate M. Chevrier, who could not go higher than 4.60 m. And I must, once more, share my admiration for K. Stefanidi, who came with a season best of 4.40 m and improved it twice, finishing sixth with 4.60 m. One could imagine that, having won everything, she would retire, devoting herself to her newborn son. But it is clear that she loves jumping, and so she is back, giving us another proof of her immense talent.

L. Fabbri won the men’s shot put easily with 22.31 m. In fact, all his valid throws would have sufficed for victory, Z. Weir, who placed second, having thrown just 21.12 m. The women’s event was dominated by J. Schilder, who had four valid throws over 20 m, culminating at 20.73 m. J. van Klinken obtained silver with a 19.64 m personal best, while Y. Mabry (Ogunleye) had to content herself with bronze at 19.50 m. And I must salute the arrival in the big girls’ league of N. Ndubuisi, who was 8th with 18.21 m. Germany had three finalists among the first eight (but only one medal). 

The men’s discus throw was, for M. Alekna, a bis repetita (non) placent of the Olympics. He started by throwing a championships record 69.89 m, only to see K. Čeh surpass him first with 70.83 m and then 72.51 m (at just 10 cm from his personal best in Ramona, from April this year, one can only wonder what he can do if he returns to Throw Town in his present top shape). Van Klinken added discus gold to her shot silver with a first-attempt throw of 67.67 m. Only S. Craft could react to this, throwing 65.72 m for silver, with V. Kamga having to settle for bronze with 64.61 m. M. Robert-Michon was, at 47 years of age, making her eighth appearance at a European Championship. This time she finished 9th with a more than honourable 60.58 m. (Let’s point out that S. Elkasević (Perković), “listening to her body”, is taking a year off).

The men’s javelin throw (where T. Röhler was eliminated in the qualifiers) was a curious affair. J. Weber took command of the event with a throw of 83.71 m, and then his compatriot N. Thumm edged him by just 5 cm at the fifth attempt. One throw remained, and J. Weber (who has already performed a last-throw feat) unleashed a humongous 90.40 m, winning the competition with a championships record. And what was Thumm’s puerile riposte? He threw the javelin 5–6 metres and collapsed on the runway. I don’t understand: hasn’t anybody explained to him that an event is not over until everybody has thrown? Did he see himself already crowned European champion with a (let’s be fair, more than mediocre) 83 m performance? I have real trouble understanding such spoiled-brat behaviour. 

The women’s javelin was, alas, as expected, a mediocre affair. E. Tzengko and A. Villagos managed to qualify, something that was denied to M. Andrejczyk, who could not do better than 55 m. The final was settled at the first throw, with S. Kolak winning with 62.43 m. Villagos could grab bronze with a 60.93 m throw, just behind J. Ulbricht (61.53 m). And please don’t ask me about Tzengko. I have a real difficulty understanding what is happening with Tzengko, who is undeniably talented but has not managed a single 60+ m throw in a year where she does not have a serious injury (she has reported a minor shoulder discomfort in May, but not something incapacitating). The first surprise in the men’s hammer throw was the elimination in the qualifiers of W. Nowicki. The second, perhaps bigger, was the 9th place of Y. Chaussinand, who had thrown a European-leading 82.44 m in June. B. Halász totally dominated the event, taking the lead from the first throw and culminating in a world-leading performance of 84.25 m at his fifth attempt. M. Hummel did not offer much in the form of resistance, but secured second place with his fifth throw at 81.30 m. It is interesting to remark that all eight finalists fouled their last, sixth, throw. S. Kosonen won her first title in the grown-ups category with a 76.28 m throw in the women’s hammer. A. Włodarczyk, the indisputably greatest hammer thrower ever, was present in Birmingham at 41 years of age, making the final, where she finished fourth, missing the medal by just half a metre.

Usually I devote a special article to the combined events. But this year I was somewhat disappointed by the decathlon, and so I decided to lump the combined together with the field events. The decathlon was won by L. Neugebauer. But for me that was a minor deception. All along the event he gave an impression of heaviness that was not present in previous years. And then came the scandal of the pole vault. When the bar was raised to 4.80 m, both Neugebauer and M. Gletty missed three times. Then they started pestering the judges, pretexting that the umbrellas next to the runway, agitated under the strong wind (true), had hindered their efforts (I am skeptical about this). In the end, the judges caved and allowed them a fourth try. Gletty missed, but Neugebauer passed and went on to jump 4.90 m (for an extra 61 points). 

That, and his 54.31 m discus throw, secured his victory over N. Kaul. The latter showed from the outset that he was in good shape, threw 48.88 m in the discus and jumped 4.90 m in the pole vault. However, his only throw in the javelin was “just” 73.54 m, and that was not enough to close the gap with Neugebauer. In the end, despite a 4:20.70 by Kaul in the 1500 m, Neugebauer carried the event 8611 to 8573 (the “extra” 60 points did make the difference). S. Skotheim was third with 8433. I was expecting him to play a major role in the event but that was not to be. The surprise came from J. Tesselaar, who, in the absence of S. Roosen (injured just before the championship), represented the Netherlands in the best way, finishing fourth with a personal best of 8378. If he manages to improve the technical events, he will be among the decathlon stars in the years to come.

The women’s heptathlon was much more interesting than the decathlon. K. O’Connor, on an ever-ascending trajectory, was the favourite and did not disappoint. On the contrary, she managed to excel in all events, winning with 6751 points. (And in a windy competition, she was lucky with a 1.3 m/s tail wind in the hurdles and exactly 2 m/s in the long jump, meaning that her record can be homologated). E. Oosterwegel returned to the places of honour, finishing second with 6713 points, just ahead of S. Dokter, 6664 points. A major disappointment was the 7th place of Adrianna Sulek-Schubert, who was among those vying for a medal and then foundered with a 36 m javelin throw. N. Vidts was also not up to her usual level, finishing in 11th place. And if one reads the classification carefully, one finds in last position K. Johnson-Thompson with 5790 points. At 33 years of age, she is definitely past her prime, but I would have understood her participation if she had given the impression of enjoying it. Unfortunately, her demeanour throughout the event suggested quite the opposite.

All in all it was a nice championship. I just hope that the famous "Ultimate Championship", the last invention of Sir Sebastian, will be at least of equal quality.

Brookes and the Revival of the Olympics (part 4 of "the real story of the Olympics")

When de Coubertin, in 1890, went to Much Wenlock to visit William Brookes, he did not know anything about the ancient Olympic Games. His interest lay in general education, physical education, and sport, an interest shared by Brookes. But once in Much Wenlock, the Baron unexpectedly encountered an Olympic revival movement. Returning to France, he wrote an enthusiastic article titled “Les Jeux Olympiques à Much Wenlock”. Referring to Brookes, he wrote: “si les jeux olympiques que la Grèce moderne n’a pas su ressusciter y revivent aujourd’hui, ce n’est pas à un Hellène qu’on en est redevable, mais bien au Dr W. P. Brookes” (“if the Olympic Games that Modern Greece has not yet been able to revive still survive there today, it is due, not to a Greek, but to Dr. W. P. Brookes”). At this point, one can appreciate that de Coubertin showed complete disregard for the efforts of Soutsos and Zappas in reviving the Olympic ideal (although the latter are alluded to, indirectly, in his article). Yet de Coubertin, being the perfidious character we know, soon began to selectively forget Brookes’s contribution, later claiming that he had founded the Olympic movement singlehandedly. But this is not an article on de Coubertin. So let us return to Brookes.

William Penny Brookes was a physician born in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, in 1809. In 1840 he founded the Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society, with a special interest in the working class, collecting books for workers, farmers, and laborers to read. In 1850 he created the “Olympian Class”, a sub-section of the Reading Society, to organize annual athletic games with cash prizes for the victors. He called the sub-section “Olympian” out of admiration for the ancient Greek Games, though his own featured modern and even medieval sports alongside athletics. The games were not called “Olympic” until the end of the decade, when Brookes became aware of Zappas’s efforts. Learning about the Zappas Olympiad, he wrote to the organizers and offered a £10 prize from the “Olympian Class of the Much Wenlock Agricultural Reading Society of England”. Ironically, the prize was for “Tilting at the Ring”, a medieval event absent from the Greek Olympiads. The prize ultimately went to the winner of the 1859 distance race, Petros Velissariou, whom Brookes made an honorary member of the newly renamed “Wenlock Olympian Society.” Influenced by the Athens program, he introduced the javelin throw to the Wenlock Games.

Tilting at the Ring

In 1860, only months after the first Zappas Olympiad, it was announced that five towns in Shropshire had agreed to hold annual regional games, the “Shropshire Olympics”. Four of these Games actually took place, and they were serious athletic meetings, featuring mostly track-and-field events. In 1865 Brookes and John Hulley (who had launched the Liverpool Olympics in 1862) formed the National Olympian Association. They proposed to hold annual national Olympic Games, “in rotation in the principal cities and towns of England”, and six were held between 1866 and 1883—the first in London. However, resistance to Brookes’s movement soon built up: the “upper-class” gentleman athletes refused to compete against plebeians. They therefore formed the Amateur Athletic Club (AAC) and organized the first “amateur” championships. Still, Brookes’s Olympian Games in London were a resounding success. The AAC boycotted the Games, and did the same the following year in Birmingham. From that point, alas, things began to deteriorate. The 1868 Games had to move from Manchester to Wellington (a small town in Shropshire), and no further Games were held until 1874, when the fourth edition took place in Much Wenlock. The British National Olympic movement was practically dead.

A much older Brookes during the  Wenlock Games (third from the right)

Brookes maintained contact with Greece. On the occasion of the fifth British National Olympic Games in 1877, he requested, through the Greek ambassador in London, that King George of Greece donate a cup to the winner of the pentathlon. The King agreed, and a silver cup “from the King of the Hellenes” was awarded to the victor (a local student, since the AAC again boycotted the Games). These contacts probably inspired Brookes, in 1880, to propose an International Olympian Festival in Athens. But the Greek Olympic Committee, dominated by the anti-athletic faction, refused to organize national Olympic Games—let alone international ones. Brookes therefore continued with his Wenlock Olympian Games, now only a shadow of their former glory. The best athletes no longer competed there, as the AAC (by then renamed the Amateur Athletic Association) organized meetings across England. In 1890, the Wenlock Games took place in May, and in October Brookes received the visit of de Coubertin. To impress the Baron, he staged a special autumn “Olympian” meeting, and succeeded so well that de Coubertin decided to appropriate his idea. But that is a story for the next post in this series.

High and low hurdles: a record explosion

It happens from time to time: performances stagnate and, all of a sudden, everything changes, with records falling one after another. This is the year of the hurdles, with three world records already, and the season is still under way, with two major competitions to come.

But let us start at the beginning, with the one record that was not set this year: the women's 400 m hurdles record. The current world record, held by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, stands at 50.37 s, set at the Paris 2024 Olympics. To illustrate the point about stagnation, let us go back to the pre-Muhammad and McLaughlin era. The previous world record belonged to Yuliya Pechonkina, who ran 52.34 s at the 2003 Russian Championships. (Pechonkina won the 2005 World Championships in a time under 53 seconds, but had finished eighth at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where her semi-final time would have guaranteed her the silver medal). And then, for 16 years, nothing happened. At the 2019 US trials, Dalilah Muhammad broke the record with 52.20 s and improved it further at the World Championships, with 52.16 s. On both occasions, Sydney McLaughlin was not far behind. The positions were going to change when competitions resumed after the pandemic. McLaughlin first shocked the world with 51.90 s at the US trials, then improved the record again in the Tokyo Olympic final, running 51.41 s, with Muhammad just behind in 51.58 s. It was the best 400 m hurdles race I have ever watched. Three more world records followed, culminating in the current 50.37 s mark. (McLaughlin-Levrone took a year off from the hurdles and went on to challenge Marita Koch's 400 m flat record with 47.78 s. She then took another year away from competition to give birth to her daughter). Just to put things in perspective, Y. Lituyev broke Hardin's men's world record with 50.4 s in 1953. Muhammad continues to compete and remains among the best in the world, in a discipline temporarily deprived of McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol (Bol has moved towards the 800 m, a distance in which Muhammad ran 2:03.71 this year).

The men's 400 m hurdles also experienced a period of stagnation. Edwin Moses reigned practically unchallenged for more than ten years, taking the world record from John Akii-Bua's 47.82 s to 47.02 s in 1983. Then came Kevin Young's stunning 46.78 s at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, followed by almost 30 years of silence. The first hurdler to go under 47 seconds again was Abderrahman Samba, who ran 46.98 s at the Meeting de Paris in 2018. Plagued by injuries, Samba never managed to threaten Young's record (although he was a world bronze medallist in 2019 and again in 2025). That honour was reserved for an ex-decathlete who had converted to the low hurdles, Karsten Warholm. He had run under 47 seconds in both 2019 and 2020, but reached the summit in 2021, first running 46.70 s at the Bislett Games and then producing the astonishing 45.94 s at the Tokyo Olympics. (After all, the first official sub-46 performance in the flat 400 m came only in 1955; the best times of the 1950s were still above 46 seconds). Over the last years I have been following Alison dos Santos, who, like all athletes, had his ups and downs because of injuries, but had established himself among the leading figures in the event. Following his victory at the 2022 World Championships, I wrote:

"Dos Santos has progressed to a level at which I will not be astonished if, barring injury, he goes for Warholm's record. What he is technically doing, passing the first three hurdles in 12 strides, has never been attempted before, with most hurdlers struggling with the 13-stride rhythm".

Dos Santos can sustain the 12-stride rhythm because he is at ease with both legs over the hurdles, something Warholm has never mastered. And he can finish the race in 13 strides, while almost everybody else has to switch to 15. So the fact that he ran a 45.80 s world record in Zürich is not such a big surprise.

The other world record set in Zürich was in the women's 100 m hurdles. Going back in history, we find that Yordanka Donkova's 12.21 s record stood for almost 30 years, until Kendra Harrison ran 12.20 s in 2016. (It is remarkable to see a world-record holder achieve so little success when it comes to honours at major competitions. Harrison has just one world title, in the 60 m hurdles at the 2018 World Indoor Championships, one Olympic silver medal, from 2021, and one world silver medal, from 2019). Tobi Amusan broke Harrison's record with 12.12 s in the semi-finals of the 2022 World Championships, followed by a wind-assisted 12.06 s in the final. But this year belonged to Masai Russell. She had announced her intentions last year, when she ran 12.17 s during the Grand Slam Track competitions. (That may have been too early in the season, which could explain why she was not in top shape at the World Championships). In Zürich she ran a flawless 100 m hurdles in 12.09 s, beating Amusan, who could manage only 12.23 s.

The men's high-hurdles record was also improved in 2026. Renaldo 'Skeets' Nehemiah was the first man under 13 seconds, with 12.93 s. Unfortunately, he turned to professional football (the American version) and when he returned to athletics it was too late. Pat Connolly, who coached him, believed that if he had concentrated on athletics he could have broken the 400 m hurdles record as well. In any case, the world record progressed thanks to several great champions, like Roger Kingdom, Colin Jackson, Xiang Liu and Dayron Robles, and had been in the possession of Aries Merritt since 2012, with 12.80 s. People expected Grant Holloway to break it, but he was sidelined by injuries, and the record survived for a few more seasons. The spotlight then moved to C. Tinch, the 2025 world champion, but that was not to be. Finally, it was the 2024 world under-20 champion, Ja'Kobe Tharp, who erased the long-standing record, running 12.75 s in the semi-finals of the NCAA Championships in June. Given that Tharp is only 21, one can hope that this will not be the last record set by this talented athlete. (To achieve that, he will need to become more consistent and avoid blunders such as the one at the Lausanne meeting.)

The two world records were the icing on the cake of the superb Zürich Diamond League. (I enjoyed the meeting in the company of my friend P. Motis at his 'Cacti House' estate on the island of Kythira, where I was spending a week enjoying his hospitality).

The meeting was truly exceptional. Imagine two pole vaulters, Duplantis and Karalis, still competing at a world-record height and finally settling for the highest one-two finish in history: 6.25 m and 6.20 m. There was a women's 800 m in which A. Werro dispelled any doubts I may have had after the Europeans by winning in 1:53.70, the third-best performance of all time, followed by F. Bol in 1:54.71, which places her ninth on the all-time list.

And what about the men's long jump, in which just 2 cm separated two world champions, M. Tentoglou and T. Gayle, with 8.45 m and 8.43 m? It was a contest that barely missed my quality criterion, 'eight jumpers over 8 m', since only seven athletes cleared eight metres. J. Alfred edged M. Jefferson-Wooden in the 100 m, but only just: 10.693 to 10.698.

A. Cockrell ran a world-leading 52.13 s in the 400 m hurdles, just ahead of D. Muhammad, while F. Diallo once again broke the Portuguese record, following her bronze medal at the Europeans, with 53.30 s. N. Olyslagers cleared 2.02 m, I. Gerashchenko 2.00 m and M. Vuković 1.98 m, relegating Mahuchikh to fourth place in the women's high jump. H. Moll cleared a personal best of 4.90 m in the pole vault. R. Pathirage won the javelin with a throw of more than 92 m. E. Wanyonyi ran a world-leading 1:41.76 in the 800 m, while K. Bednarek did the same in the 200 m, with 19.62 s. F. Cherotich won the women's 3000 m steeple with 8:55.82 just ahead of D. Lemngole 8:55.94 and P. Chemutai 8:58.28.

It was a great competition, and I am telling myself that I should not set my expectations too high for the Brussels DL final. As for the famous Ultimate Championship, the one with the curtailed, arbitrarily fixed programme, my expectations are definitely lower. (I would, however, be glad to be proved wrong).