Two years ago I wrote a prequel to my report on the European Indoors, celebrating the victories of M. Trajkovic and N. Visser in the 60 m hurdles. Two years later, the two hurdlers met with very different fates in the championships. But, read on.
The most important thing about these championships was that they took place. After a year without any championship, with just some token competitions, even this "public-free" event was really heart-warming. Not all the champions of the old continent were present. The hope that the Olympic Games will take place this summer has pushed many athletes to give these championships a miss. But, still, the competition was of very high level and the results are there to prove it.
The two sprint events saw the crowning of L. Jacobs and A. Del Ponte. Jacobs is not an unknown: he has a 100 m PB of 10.03 from 2019 (and also a wind-aided 8.48 m in long jump) but the way he dominated the race, winning in 6.47 s, was spectacular.
A. Del Ponte is, essentially, last year's revelation, when she started winning Diamond League events. In the 60 m final she was really impressive, winning with 7.03 s and a huge margin. J. Samuel was third in 7.22 after having qualified for the final with just the last qualifying time, which confirms the fact that the final is always a different race.
O. Husillos obtained his redemption (after the excessive disqualification in the 2018 World indoors) by winning his first major title in the 400 m with 46.22 fending off the dutch athletes. The Netherlands took their vengeance in the women's event dominated, as expected, by F. Bol in 50.63. I was expecting a better race from L. Klaver, who faded over the last metres of the race (had she repeated the 51.63 of the relay first leg she would have obtained the bronze medal).
In a final with three british and two polish athletes K. Hodgkinson won the women's 800 m with 2:03.88. (Earlier in the season she had established the U20 world record with 1:59.03).
The men's race saw the victory of a non-specialist, P. Dobek, with 1:46.81, while ex-world champion P.A. Bosse foundered in the last place. Dobek is a 400 m hurdles specialist, finalist in both World and European championships, with a quite respectable 48.40 s PB. Is he starting a new career? We'll know more this summer.
There was no surprise in the men's 1500 and 3000 m. J. Ingebrigtsen won both races with exemplary ease. His times: 3:37.56 and 7:48.20. He was initially disqualified in the 1500 m: a ridiculous decision since he was clearly pushed off the track. Fortunately he was reinstated after protest. He is undoubtedly the best european middle-distance runner. The women's 1500 m was won by the, relatively unknown, belgian runner E. Vanderelst, in a tactical race of 4:18.46. Silver medallist H. Archer was initially disqualified and reinstated upon protest. The women's 3000 m on the other hand was a very fast race where 7 of the finalists registered personal bests, the winner being A.E. Markovc with 8:46.63.
And this brings us to the hurdles events, I opened this report with. N. Visser is maturing into a superb hurdler. She won the final in a world leading performance of 7.77 s. The interesting thing is that she was surrounded on the podium by two sisters, C. Sember and T. Porter. The reigning european 100 m hurdles champion E. Herman exited in the semis.
The same fate awaited the 2019 60 m hurdles european champion M. Trajkovic who could not progress beyond the semi-final. His time of 7.78 was very far from his PB of 7.51, but even the later would have been just enough for bronze in a race won by W. Belocian in 7.42 s.
The Netherlands won, quite expectedly, the two 4x400 relays, the men's race with 3:06.06 (alas the belgian team is no more what it used to be) and the women's race with 3:27.15, anchored by F. Bol.
In the men's high jump I was rooting for G. Tamberi all along and when he passed 2.35 m I thought he had won the event. But then M. Nedasekau produced the perfect jump in 2.37 m and carried the victory. Be that as it may, I am particularly happy that Tamberi's come back is solidifying, and I hope that this time he will not miss the Olympics. The women's event was won by Y. Mahuchikh with 2.00 m (who then had the bar raised to 2.07 m). Once more Y. Levchenko was unlucky and had to content herself with a fourth place. Had she won bronze, Ukraine would have swept the medals.
The women's pole vault was won by A. Moser who improved her PB to 4.75 m just when it counted most. Pre-event favourites H. Bradshaw and I. Zhuk shared the bronze medal with 4.65 m, behind T. Sutej who passed 4.70 m. In the absence of K. Stefanidi and N. Kyriakopoulou, Greece was represented by E.K. Polak who had an excellent championship, finishing just outside the medals on count-back with 4.65m. Since last year, there is nobody who can beat Duplantis in the men's pole vault. He won the event in just three jumps, then improved the championships record with 6.05 m and raised the bar to a would-be world record of 6.19 m where he had one solid attempt. The silver medal went to Lavillenie, but the one we are accustomed to. This time it was the younger bother, Valentin, who with a PB of 5.80 m obtained his first major competition medal. I noticed also a newcomer, E. Sasma, from Turkey. He is born in 1999, just like Duplantis and his PB of 5.72 m looks promising. I'll keep an eye on him.
Women's long jump was a gripping event, W. Bekh-Romanchuk prevailing upon world champion M. Mihambo on her very last jump, 6.92 to 6.88 m. K. Sagnia was third with 6.75 m. L. Iapicchino, in her first major championship, did not disappoint, with 6.59 m and a fifth place in the final (after having jumped 6.70 m in the qualifiers). And, of course, I regret the absence of the I. Spanovic, who was injured a few days before the Europeans.
M. Tentoglou won, as expected, the men's long jump with a world-leading 8.35 m, (that was the only greek medal) but it was not an easy victory since T. Montler had four jumps over 8 m, with a PB of 8.31m. A minor disappointment for the greek fans in women's triple jump was the fact that V. Papachristou, world leader with 14.60 m and who qualified with great ease with 14.39 m, could manage only 14.31 m in the final, finishing fifth. The event was won with 14.53 m by P. Mamona (who was outdoors european champion in 2016), in a final where the silver and bronze medalists, A. Peleteiro and N. Eckhardt, were just one centimetre behind. The first jump did suffice for P.P. Pichardo in order to win the men's triple jump with 17.30 m, but A. Copello had to wait till his last effort before securing the silver medal with 17.04 m. I was following the presentation on a french channel and H.F. Zango (indoor triple jump world record holder with 18.07 m), who was invited to comment the event, was convinced that Copello could jump over 17 m . It turned out that he was right.
The women's shot put was won by the pre-event favourite A. Dongmo with 19.43 m, in an event where all three medalists threw beyond 19 m. The men's event was won by T. Stanek who beat the local favourite M. Haratyk 21.62 to 21.47 m. It is remarkable that all eight finalists were spinners.
The women's pentathlon was won by none other than N. Thiam. She was in good shape although her high jump, with 1.89 m, was clearly below par. Her total was a world-leading 4904 points, but had she jumped 1.98 m (which she can do and has done on occasions) she would have broken the world record. The second place went to N. Vidts who registered three PB and came very, very close to in the remaining two events, obtaining a final score of 4791. I. Dadic lost the bronze medal to X. Krizsan, essentially due to her below-par shot put. N. Broersen (indoor pentathlon 2014 world champion) fouled-out in the long jump, but still presented herself to the 800 m. M. Vicente could not finish her first combined event in a major championship (she is just 20 years old) also fouling-out in the long jump. It is a pity because both Broersen and Vicente had already marked more than 4500 points in the pentathlon and could have played an important role in the event. While I don't like at all the women's heptathlon, I do like the pentathlon a lot. It is an event contested in a single day and thus, to my eyes, half a decathlon. And the field events are the same as those of the first day of the decathlon.
The men's heptathlon could have been a suspenseful event. S. Ehammer won the first two events and one could see that K. Mayer was feeling the pressure (all the more so, since his long jump was not as good as expected). Mayer was relieved when he threw a massive 16.32 in his third attempt in shot put and even more so when he high-jumped 2.04 m, finishing the first day ahead of Ehammer. He padded his advance by beating Ehammer in the hurdles. And then it was over: Ehammer, who is not a pole vault specialist fouled-out at his initial height of 4.50 m. (He could have started at 4.40 m but for an athlete who has already jumped 5 m, 4.50 m was a very conservative initial height). Mayer managed to scare us a little missing his first try at 5 m but then he reached 5.20 without incident, bowing out after two misses in 5.30 m. The 1000 m was a pure formality which saw Mayer winning with 6392 points (less than 100 points from his European record) with J. Ureña (the 2019 champion) second with 6158 points. Had Ehammer jumped a modest 4.60 m in the pole vault and ran roughly at Mayer's pace in the 1000 m, he would have managed to obtain a medal, perhaps even the silver one.
Yes, it was very nice to have a championship after a year without any major event. But a stadium with empty seats, without the special atmosphere created by the fans present in the stands, is a sad thing. Let us cross our fingers and hope that starting from this summer the situation will go back to normal.
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