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.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
ANKLE PROBLEM: Taiwan’s Ye Hong-wei and Lee Chia-hsin had a disappointing end to their tournament after an injury forced them out of their mixed doubles semi-final Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying on Friday was knocked out in the women’s singles quarter-finals at her last Taipei Open. The world No. 3 lost 21-18, 16-21, 22-24 to Putri Kusuma Wardani of Indonesia in a match that stretched 68 minutes at the Taipei Arena. Despite her higher ranking, Tai said she was not too sad about the loss, given her struggle with a lingering knee injury. “Wins and losses are just part of the game. Actually, I think I’m going to lose every single match considering my condition now,” said the five-time champion of the Super 300 event, who has announced plans
RSS