Zivile Balciunaite, -real, Berlin, photo by PhotoRun.net

It took Zivile Balciunaite only two hours, thirty one minutes and fourteen seconds to
give Lithuania its first marathon. Focused, the veteran marathon took the European
title with little distress!

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

â€žI can’t say it in words,”
Balciunaite said when describing how important her achievement was for her
country. â€žI think about it so many
years.” She added: â€žMy coach, when we’re
training for this championship she told me, â€šyou have to go to win, you have to
go to win. It’s your time.'” (RRW)

RESULT OF THE SESSION

Merlene Ottey anchoring the
Slovenian relay in 4×100 m heats at age of 50.

SURPRISE OF THE SESSION

Zivile Balciunaite winning gold
medal for Lithuania in marathon.

FAVORITES FALLS

In relays out German women in
4×100 m, Great Britain in men and women 4×100 m, Czech Republic with saving
Hejnova and Masna out in 4×400 m heats, Russia out in menÂ´s 4×100 m. Diamond
League top placer Zoltan Kovago out in discus qualification.

STATS (by Ken Nakamura)

W4x400m Relay: 3:30.11 by IRL
is the fastest non-qualifier at W4x400m in the European Championships replacing
3:30,40 by SWE in 2006.

WMaratho: Balciunaite won the
first medal for LTU at the womenÂ´s marathon in the European Championships. Her
winning time, 2:31:14 was faster than YegorovaÂ´s winning time (2:32:41) at the
Olympic Games in Barcelona (it should be noted that Olympic marathon course,
which finished in the stadium was much tougher course).

M4x100m relay: 39.49 by GBR is
the fastest non-qualifying 4x100m relay time in the history of the European
Championships replacing 39.58 by Finland in 2002.

W4x100m Relay:: 43.93 by IRL is
the fastest non-qualifying W4x100m relay time in the history of the European
Championships, replacing 44.04 by Greece in 2002

SPECTATORS

Estimated at 5000, total so far
is at 145 000.

OTHERS

RUSSIA: In the European Cup
Marathon team competition, Russia earned the top spot with a total time
for their top-3 finishers of 7:44:39.
Italy was second in 7:46:18 and Great Britain third 8:00:36.

RUSSIA: Shot putter Anna
Alminova who won bronze in Barcelona was hospitalized and underwent
a appendix surgery in home Samara after returning from Spain.

MEDIA RACE: Winner was
Christian Lenk from BBC who clocked impressive 1:57.58 in the 700 m. Alexandra Arendt of
Leichtathletik Magazine in Germany was the best woman in 2:27.59.

AGENTS RANKING

Ricky Simms 3, Rene Auguin 3,
Pavel Voronkov 3, Aleksandr Porkhomovskiy 2, Vera Michallek 2, Mikhail Gusev 2,
Ludmila Olijar 2, Aivar Karotamm, Mark Block, Wilfried Meert, Miguel Mostaza,
Daniel Wessfeldt, Munir Yaras, Kerstin
Pohlers, Alfons Juck 1 gold medal. Decathlon winner Barras is not having an
agent.

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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