Dafne Schippers emulated legendary Dutch compatriot Fanny Blankers-Koen by completing the 100m-200m sprint double at the European athletics championships on Friday.
The original “Flying Dutchwoman,” Blankers-Koen won both sprints at Brussels in 1950.
Having won the 100m on Wednesday, Schippers took victory in the 200m, improving her Dutch record from 22.34 seconds to a world-leading 22.03 seconds and finishing 0.43 seconds clear of runner-up, Jodie Williams of Britain.
Photo: EPA
“A world-leading mark is unbelievable,” said 22-year-old Schippers, a bronze medallist in the heptathlon at the world championships in Moscow last year. “I did not dream of running 22.03 seconds, and I have two gold medals too. It’s a great success not just for me, but for my country.”
Coming into this year’s European championships, the Netherlands had only won three gold medals since 1982.
However, they won two on Friday and now have three in Zurich, one shy of their record tally from 1950.
There might have been greater Dutch success in the heptathlon, but Nadine Broersen was eclipsed by Antoinette Nana Djimou of France in the final event, the 800m, and had to settle for silver, 53 points shy of the winner’s points tally of 6,551.
Still, as well as that silver, there was another gold for the Dutch in the women’s 1,500m, Sifan Hassan finishing 0.90 seconds clear of another Ethiopian native, world outdoor and indoor champion Abeba Aregawi of Sweden, in 4 minutes, 4.18 seconds.
There were one-twos for Britain in the men’s 400m, Martyn Rooney edging out 19-year-old Matt Hudson-Smith by 0.04 seconds in 44.71 seconds, and for Poland in the 800m, Adam Kszczot claiming gold ahead of Artur Kuciapski in 1 minute, 44.15 seconds.
Ukraine also claimed silver and gold in the high jump, world champion Bogdan Bondarenko clearing 2.35m to beat compatriot Andriy Protsenko (2.33m) with Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov of Russia taking bronze (2.3m).
Britain’s Adam Gemili produced a storming run to take the men’s 200m crown in 19.98 seconds, finishing a decisive 0.17 seconds clear of Christophe Lemaitre, who at least had the consolation of taking his European Championship medal haul to seven, a record for a male athlete.
However, the loudest cheer of the night came when Kariem Hussein claimed gold for hosts Switzerland, producing a grandstand finish to win the 400m hurdles in 48.96 seconds.
“The crowd was awesome,” Hussein said. “It feels strange. I am tremendously happy, but all of my emotions went into the race.”
The first world record of the championships came in the men’s 50km walk, Frenchman Yohann Diniz winning in 3 hours, 32 minutes, 33 seconds.
“This is the best day of my life,” the 36-year-old said, after slicing 1 minute, 41 seconds off the previous record, held by Russian Denis Nizhegorodov.
In honor of his late Portuguese grandmother, Diniz crossed the line clutching French and Portugese flags, but stayed on the right side of the rule-book, unlike his French teammate, Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, who was stripped of his 3,000m steeplechase title for removing his singlet in celebration on Thursday.
Mekhissi-Benabbad eased into today’s 1,500m final by finishing third in his first-round heat and then insisted he had “no regrets” about his home straight antics of the night before.
“In every other sport, you can take your vest off,” he said.
“Only in athletics you cannot do this. I did not hinder anybody,” he added.
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
A new NZ$683 million (US$404 million) stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch’s struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city is to host its first match tomorrow in front of a sellout crowd. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city’s old Lancaster Park. The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket, and was home to the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened. It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home. Government funding for a new stadium was
RSS