The European 2025 Indoors

I was not expecting a high-quality championship as it was held just two weeks before the World Indoors one. Well, I was rather pessimistic on this. It was really a most enjoyable competition and given that European Athletics were streaming the event without restrictions I could really follow it from beginning to end.

And the event I most enjoyed was the men's heptathlon. In the end of the second day we had a European record (in fact the second finisher's score was also better than the previous record), five national records for the first five and personal bests up to the 8th position. S. Skotheim who had broken Mayer's European record one month before the Indoors was the favourite and in the end he did prevail. But that had not been simple. S. Ehammer had a great first day and the only reason Skotheim could take command was due to his superb 2.19 m high jump combined with a below-par 1.98 m of Ehammer. But after the 60 m hurdles Ehammer took again command and, what is more impressive, he could conserve it after the pole vault. In fact by jumping 5.10 m (25 cm under his personal best) Skotheim lost his chance for a world record. (A 5.35 m would have brought him at just a handful of points from Eaton's record of 6645. They entered the 1000 m with Ehammer having a 50 points advantage. But although he finished in a personal best of 2:41.76, Skotheim's 2:32.72 gave him a 100 point advantage and the title. T. Steinforth was third with 6388 points (resisting to the attack of, European 2024 outdoors champion, J. Erm who covered a handicap of 41 points but was still 8 points short. My friends at Décapassion point out that if Steinforth manages to improve his "long" throws (discus and javelin) he will be among the protagonists of the decathlon. I guess I'l have to keep and eye open for him this summer.

The women's pentathlon was not of the same level due to the absence of the stars of the discipline (Thiam, Vidts, Johnson-Thompson, Vetter, Sulek). Still it led to a European U23 record, two national records and personal bests for the first four finishers. My favourite for the event was S. Dokter but S. Vanninen was in great shape: with three personal bests and knowing that she excels at the 800 m she was sure for the title even before the last event. Dokter and Vanninen upgraded last year's  bronze and silver medals at the World Indoors to silver and gold respectively. K. O'Connor shined at the 800 m, beating J. O'Dowda for the bronze medal. Since she is an excellent javelin thrower I guess I'll have to keep an eye open for her during this summer's heptathlon. And speaking about javelin throwers, I was somewhat disappointed by the performance of E. Oosterwegel who could not finish better than 9th. I just hope that she'll manage to get back in shape for Tokyo.

Since I would like this post to be published before the World Indoors (there just a few days away) I will not give a full report, as I am usually doing, but just a few comments on what I found particularly interesting. 

In the horizontal jumps the gold medals went to the outsiders (with the exception of women's triple jump won by A. Peleteiro. And even in this case she managed to win by just 6 cm, when D. Ion had a last jump at 14.31 m). M. Furlani, took command of the men's long jump with 8.12 m, the same performance as L. Lescay, but backed by a 8.10 m. But then B. Saraboyukov jumped 8.13 m securing gold. (As for Montler who had jumped 8.23 m prior to the championship he could not finish better than 7th). M. Hess was the favourite for the men's triple jump, having the world leading performance with 17.41 m. And he did improve it with 17.43 m on his first attempt. But on the 5th jump Andy Díaz (do not confuse him with Olympic and European champion Jordan Díaz) soared to 17.71 m and the game was over. M. Mihambo who went to Apeldoorn as the only woman in the world having jumped 7 m this year, went home with a bronze medal obtained at her very last jump, edging out M. Gardasevic, 6.88 m to 6.75 m, but still not enough for silver (A. Kälin, 6.90 m) or gold (L. Iapichino, 6.98 m). What was curious in the horizontal jumps was the great number fouls. Had it something to do with the runway? (But then this may be just my impression and when the fouls are carefully counted they may well turn out to be close to the expected 30 %).

I really like the photo of Karalis celebrating with Topic

The vertical jumps were less surprising, although Karalis had to share his gold medal in men's pole vault. Going into the competition with two performances over 6 m this year he could do no better than 5.90 m, the same height as M. Vloon and S. Gutormsen. (And I did hugely appreciate the fact that Karalis and Vloon, having tied, decided to share gold, quite unlike what happened in the olympic high jump this summer). What was somewhat surprising was the 4th, 9th and 11th places of the three french jumpers, Collet, Thiery and Lavillenie, who arrived at Apeldoorn all three with a recent 5.91 m performance. On the other hand the women's pole vault was a consolation for the french team with M.J. Bonin obtaining her first major medal, a bronze, with 4.70 m, in an event won by A. Moser with 4.80 m. Y. Mahuchikh won the women's high jump with an underwhelming 1.99 m, and A. Topic, who did not attempt 1.97 m, was second with 1.95 m, but had an excellent jump at 1.99 m. If she does not injure herself I believe that she will end the season as a 2+ m jumper. Ukraine obtained another gold in men's high jump where O. Doroshchuk jumped a world-leading 2.34 m.

J. Ingebrigtsen won his two races, 1500 m and 3000 m, with particular ease. His task will be much harder in Nanjing. A. Guillemot offered the unique gold to France, winning the women's 1500 m, while S. Healy did the same for Ireland in the 3000 m race. With F. Bol participating only in the relays, L. Klaver was the favourite for the women's 400 m and she did confirm. She won with 50.38 s but she had to battle all the way to the finish line with E. Jaeger, who was second with 50.48. L.G. Manuel is a runner I am keeping an eye on since last year when she shined in the Europeans and the Olympics and won the U20 world title. She finished 4th in the 400 m but then took her revenge in the 4x400 m relay. Anchoring the Czech team, she managed to catch up with the leading teams and, with a 49.80 s split, offered to her country a bronze medal.

Just look at the handicap Manuel had to overcome

The Kambundji sisters went home with a gold, Ditaji winning the 60 m hurdles, and silver, Mujinga in the 60 m. Double European champion of 60 m hurdles, N. Visser had to content herself with silver this time. The women's 60 m race was one of the most spectacular of the championships. Kambundji arrived to Apeldoorn as the favourite by Z. Dosso announced her intentions from the outset. In the end she won in 7.01 s (a time initially announced as 6.99 s) with Kambundji second in 7.02 s. P. van der Weken won her first major medal finishing third in 7.06 s. I believe that baring injuries, she will be an 11- runner at the end of the season. (Being tall she is more at ease in a distance like 100 m. The same applies to A. Hunt who is still taller and managed to make it to the final with a personal best of 7.09 s). 

There is only one throw in the European Indoors, the shot put. L. Fabbri, the number one favourite of the men's event, with a world-leading performance of 21.95 m, could not make it to the final, and it was sad to see him weeping at the end of the qualifiers. On the other hand, double European champion and world bronze medalist J. Schilder dominated her event in the most absolute way. All her six throws were better than the best of the silver medalist who is none other but the reigning olympic champion Y. Ogunleye. With her performance of 20.69 m, Schilder is second only to V. Adams, when one counts performances of the last 20 years.

I just hope that World Athletics will imitate European athletics and stream the championships in Nanjing without ridiculous geo-blocking constraints. Be that as it may I will report on them next month. 

Another interesting greek site

Influenced by my discussion with my friend K. Tsagkarakis, I decided to published an article on two interesting athletics-related greek sites. And then I realised that there was a greek site that I have been following over the years, in  quest of greek news, but I never wrote about it. I know that most readers of my blog do not care much about greek news, and the fact that the site is in greek makes things more difficult, but I feel that it is only fair to mention a site that has been really active for many years. I am talking about Stivoz.gr.

Contrary to the two other sites I mentioned in that previous post of mine, StivoZ is rather understated. One is greeted by a mostly black page (does this ring a bell?) and one has to scroll to the bottom of the page in order to find the most recent international news accompanied by photos. 

There is also one thing I like in the StivoZ site. They have an entry for records and there under the "jumps" submenu they are presenting the disciplines in the order: long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault. This is the order I learned when I started interesting myself in athletics and only much later I discovered that the commonly accepted order places the vertical jumps before the horizontal. Perhaps the traditional greek order has to do with the fact that the long jump was the only traditionally greek jump. But, the other hand, if this were true why do we adopt the order shot put, discus throw, javelin throw and hammer throw instead of starting with the two "greek" disciplines discus and javelin? Be that as it may, discovering that StivoZ is still using what I consider the greek order was a moment of nostalgia.

Stop the presses: go visit Décapassion

My friends Frédéric and Pierre Gousset did it again. They just published a fabulous article that anyone who is interested in combined events must read. 

The title of the article says that the article compares the decathlon records of each event to the corresponding world records since 1911.

But the title does not do justice to the article. Instead of a drab comparison, we are treated to a mini-history of the decathlon extending over more than a century.  (And the pure data are there, for the purists, and can be freely downloaded for future reference).

Only the Gousset could have produced such a gem. So, do not hesitate. If you do not speak french, ask Google to translate the page for you. And you will understand why I am so enthusiastic about it.

Where we talk, once more, about innovation

A few months back I published an article entitled "The future of Athletics?". The motivation for this was the pretentious mail received by World Athletics, entitled "Help shape the future of Athletics" announcing a competition to be held in Fribourg and which turned to be a real disaster. If you are interested in the details you can read my article, but you can take my word concerning the competition which was totally botched, both in the "innovations" tried out and in the video coverage. If World Athletics approach to innovation is even remotely resembling the one of Fribourg we must brace for the worst.

The word innovation appeared again in an article, published recently in the WA website which prompted me to revisit last year's article "Sport and event innovation central pillar in World Athletics’ four-year business strategy". Five points (if we discard the intentionally vague, strategy-oriented and of dubious value statements) were highlighted in that article:

New events such as a mixed 4x100m relay and a steeplechase mile

A take-off zone for horizontal jumps

Improved efficiency of measurements

New ways to decide tie-breakers in jumps using new technology

Reviewing the weights of women’s shot put and javelin

In the article mentioned at the beginning of this post I went through these proposals and made extensive comments. In the light of the recent publication, it is time for an update.

The most important "innovation" is the take-off zone for horizontal jumps, something I have been advocating for years. More than ten years ago I wrote an article entitled "Longer jumps" where I proposed a 60 cm wide take-off board. Unfortunately, the ever-hesitant World Athletics, are orienting themselves towards a 40 cm board. Still, the effect of a wider board is visible. Based on data from two competitions in Düsseldorf and in Berlin, there were just 13 % fouls, while the statistical foul probability is 32 %. And, what is more, counting the potential fouls, if the jumps were judged with the traditional rules, the percentage rose to 66 %, meaning that the athletes are taking greater risks in order to profit from the wider board. Although there are not enough results yet, allowing to draw solid conclusions, it appears that the new system is bringing a 10+ cm improvement to the athletes' performances. (I am convinced that a 60 cm board would allow a practically zero-foul event, leading to an even greater gain in the jump length).

The mixed 4x100 m relay will be tested at the 2025 World Relays. (I just hope that they will not botch the event like they did with the shuttle relay, which is the only race not lending itself to a mixed configuration). Having proposed this event in this blog I am totally in favour of its introduction. 

The steeplechase mile is also a good addition, although I would have favoured a 5000 m race instead. On the other hand, given that a 800 m hurdles looks very difficult to set up, from a practical point of view, I guess that the steeple mile is the best we can hope for. 

One thing that was not mentioned this time was the point concerning the weight of women's implements, in particular shot put and javelin. I guess that people at WA decided to use their heads and concluded that disrupting the shot put for a small gain was not justified, while for javelin there is nothing you can do in order to reach parity (unless you decide to make men's javelin substantially heavier).

There are few other points mentioned in the recent WA article (predictions, timetable design, instant results) but what attracted my attention was the entry "combined events", that I reproduce verbatim.

"As part of our data sampling, we have gathered multiple data sets related to combined events; not only from the international top level, but also across all levels of the sport, including grassroots participation. The intention is to share this information with the wider community later this year and provide insights for discussion of the status of combined events".

I don't know how to parse this. Is this cryptic statement allowing some hope for a women's decathlon to enter the official World Athletics program? Time will tell (or, knowing World Athletics, perhaps not).

Finally among the future plans one finds interesting items like the return of the 200 m hurdles and false start rules. (I just hope that the latter will be a replacement of the 100 ms rule by something more realistic and not the rigmarole we saw in Fribourg). Street and off-road running will profit from new formats. And the article concludes with a vague reference to vertical jumps where there is question of "height progression protocols", whatever that is. Unless there is question of allowing for a limited number of attempts to distribute as the athlete wishes.

I don't trust World Athletics: they are timorous when it comes to change and I will believe their commitment to innovation when I see it. But, rest assured, I am going to follow the matter closely, reporting regularly here.