Mo Farah, Torino 2009, 3,000 m, photo by PhotoRun.net.

Our man in Barcelona, Alfons Juck, continues to provide us with great stuff on the first real day of the European Champs! Congrats to Mo Farah and Chris Thompson, who went 1-2 in the men’s 10,000 meters, finishing with laps in 56-57, and some serious negative split runnin(14:38/13:46), Farah sealed his win with a last 300 meters in 46 seconds and Thompson had to fight all of the way, moving up to silver at the finish line! 

EME NEWS (JUL 27, 2010) EVENING SESSION

QUOTE OF THE SESSION

„I will celebrate tonight
talking to my friends on the phone,” shot put winner Nadezhda Ostapchuk.

„I would have a cup of tee
if that would be possible during the race, I felt so comfortable,” Mariya
Savinova after her 800 m
heat.

RESULT OF THE SESSION 

Britons last lap in the 10 000 m, Thompson at 56
and Farah at 57 seconds.

SURPRISE OF THE SESSION

German shot putters with no
medals, Petra Lammert only 6th and Nadine Kleinert 7th.

FAVORITES FALLS

10 000 m: Spanish Ayad
Lamdassem running last laps with eventual winner Farah lost his silver in last 100 m. Title defender
Fitschen only 12th.

STATS (by Ken Nakamura)

Men´s 10000m: Mo Farah became
the fiirst British runner to win 10000m in the 
European Championships.  The
British runners finished first and second, first 1-2 finish since Italian had
done so in 1986 (in fact Italian swept the medal in 1986). The first Km split
of 2:59.70, as well as 2Km, 3, 4 and 5Km split (14:38.10) were all very slow.
In fact, splits for 1,2,3,4,and 5Km are slower than any race since and
including 1950 European Championships. The winning time of 28:24.99 was the
slowest winning time since 1974 edition of Euro Championships.

Men´s 100m: First round heat
time of 10.19 by Christophe Lemaitre tied the fastest first round time of 10.19
by Pietro Mennea in 1978 and Max Moriniere in 1990.

Women´s 800m: 1:58.89 by
Svetlana Klyuka is the fastest first round time ever, eclipsing the previous
fastest first round time of 1:59.96 by Tatyana Providokhina from 1978.  However, it should be noted that
Providokhina´s time was recorded in three rounds scenario while Klyuka have
only heat and the final. Yuliya Krevsun did not qualify for the final despite
running

1:59.44 in heat 2. This is the
fastest ever time that failed to qualify for the final of 800m at the European
Championships. The previous fastest non qualifying time was 2:00.08 by Diane Modahl
in 1998.

Women´s SP:  BLR finished 1-2 to match their 1-2 finish
four years ago. 20.48 by Ostapchuk is the farthest throw by Belarus shot putter
in the European Championships.

SPECTATORS

Estimated at 10 000.

EVENTS

100 M: Top favorites running
into similar head-wind. Chambers 10.21 against -1.5 and Lemaitre 10.19 against
-1.4. Impressive also Saidy Ndure 10.31 against -1.6. Paralympian Jason Smyth
of Ireland qualified into the semifinals.

HJ: Enough 223 in first, in some cases
also 223 in
second.

800 m: Surprise from Mayte
Martinez who came here with 2:05 this season and clocked 1:59.12 season best to
qualify on time. Two Brits and two Russians into the finals, first big final
for Slovak Klocova.

JT: World junior champ Rebryk
of Ukraine out. 56.55 enough to qualify.

TJ: Big fight is expected,
Tamgho windy 17.37, Idowu legal 17.10, but Kuznyetsov 17.22 and Compaore 17.19
were better.

OTHERS

FRANCE: Christophe Lemaitre
confirmed for French media that he will run also the 200 m where he is list leader
and clocked European U23 record 20.16 at national championships.

BELGIUM: Left foot injury was
responsible that Monder Rizki gave up the 10 000 m race. He could
not reach the 5 km
mark.

GERMANY: High jump star Ariane
Friedrich says: „The Creme de la Creme of our event is competing here, only US
Chaunte Howard is missing,.” The European indoor champion pointed out that
a two metres result could be enough only for fourth or fifth place.

NORWAY: Javelin world leader
and title defender Andreas Thorkildsen informs on his twitter. Finally got my
new Li Ning javelin shoes. Made in Norwegian colors for European champs.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Javelin legend
Jan Zelezny who is currently IOC Member, Czech team javelin coach and Ostrava
meeting director said after his arrival to Barcelona. „I visited the stadium it
looks similar as in 1992 when I won here my first olympic gold.
I consider this stadium as one of the nicest in the world. It is nearly 20
years after the games and all looks in good shape. And we know how difficult it
is to keep the main olympic stadiums after the games, I m remembering
Atlanta. It is nice to be here again,” said Zelezny who´s athlete Jarmila
Klimesova qualified to finals. But his main expectations are in men competition
with Petr Frydrych and Vitezslav Vesely aiming for high positions.

SPAIN: Spain as running top
country selected for 1500 m
the trio veteran Reyes Estevez, Manuel Olmedo and Arturo Casado. Not running
from entered are Alvaro Rodriguez and Juan Carlos Higuero.

100 M WOMEN: In Wednesday
heats two past stars will be competing in the same third heat. European record
holder and 1998 winner from Budapest Christine Arron of France with 2004
olympic winner Yulia Nesterenko of Belarus.

TURKEY: Turkish double olympic
medalist Elvan Abeylegesse is reportedly beeing in great shape and plans for
a double. Observers are saying she might have the possibility to achieve
marks at European record level but at the championships without pacemakers that
does not look as a possibility. But as reported by Turkish media she had
a difficult travel. On Monday in a car accident she escaped save and
healthy but missed her connections. So the president of her club in Turkey
offered a private plane and helped.

AGENTS RANKING

Pavel Voronkov and Ricky Simms
1 gold medal, walking winner is not agent bound.