Germany opened their medal count at the European athletics indoor championships with a double gold showing from Ralf Bartels and Carolin Nytra on Friday.
Bartels, twice world bronze medalist and 2006 European champion, managed a best of 21.16m to win the shot put ahead of teammate David Storl (20.75m), with Russian Maksim Sidorov (20.55m) claiming bronze.
“My first attempt was really zero, so I knew I had to ‘deliver’ something,” Bartels said, adding that a celebration would wait until after the women’s shot competition and that it would include a trip to the Eiffel Tower. “In the winter time, the queues won’t be as long as in the summer of 2003 [when the world championships were held in Paris].”
Photo: Reuters
After Bartels’ success, Nytra then stormed to the women’s 60m hurdles title after she was adjudged to have pipped Britain’s Tiffany Ofili in a photo-finish, with both athletes timed at 7.80 seconds. Norway’s Christina Vukicevic claimed bronze (7.83 seconds).
Nytra revealed she had heeded the sage advice of her coach and dipped full tilt at the line.
“He told me this race would be won in the finish and he was right. At the start, I saw the shot putters with our national flag in the finish area and said to myself ‘this is a sign for me.’”
There was also a gold medal for the home fans to shout about as Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida produced the run of her life in the 800m to win the women’s pentathlon, a competition missing the presence of Britain’s Jessica Ennis.
Going into the last of the five-discipline event 112 points off Austra Skujyte, she managed to finish 7 seconds ahead of the Lithuanian, enough to end on 4,723 points, a winning margin of just 17. Remona Fransen of the Netherlands took bronze (4,665 points).
“It’s fantastic,” the Cameroon-born Nana Djimou said. “I didn’t perform so well in all the events today, but I succeeded. The 800m is not my best race, but I just had to run, so I ran.”
The fourth and final gold of the day went to Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic, who won the men’s 60m hurdles in 7.49 seconds ahead of France’s Garfield Darien (7.56 seconds) and Belgium’s Adrien Deghelt (7.57 seconds).
French double jump medal hope Teddy Tamgho also had a successful first day of what promises to be a charged weekend for him.
The reigning world indoor triple-jump champion and world record holder jumped a best of 7.97m in the long jump to qualify for the final and then topped triple-jump qualification with 17.06m.
“Today, I guess I’ve done the job at 100 percent,” Tamgho said. “I’m happy and relieved to have survived these two qualifications. I’m going to take all the risks on the long jump, even on the first attempt. It’ll be all go at 200kph for the weekend.”
There was also a comfortable outing for defending 3,000m champion Mo Farah of Britain.
Farah, also the reigning European outdoor 10,000m gold medalist, never looked under threat in his heat and finished in full control of the race’s result in 8 minutes, 2.36 seconds to make the final as firm favorite.
“I did what I had to do and I’m glad to have achieved my goal of making the final,” Farah said. “I feel relaxed and ready for the fight.”
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