2013 European Indoor Champs, Day 3: Lavillenie Clears 6.01m, WL, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

The Euro Indoor Championships were one of the best executed events that I have ever seen, on any continent. The shot put qualifying in the Marketplace, the in stadium commentating with Katherine Merry and Christian Olsson, to the app used from Goteborg 2013: all were signs that the sport was moving forward.

My fear is that, even with WL in both 60m for men, 60m hurdles for men, Men’s pole vault, Triple Jump and Long jump for men, Long jump and Triple jump for women and 4 x 400m for women, two issues may stay in mind, in our apparent focus on accentuating the negative. Our sport tends to shoot itself in the foot quite often.

The first was the snafu over the 4 x 400m, which the Great Britain and NI team were disqualified and quickly reinstated. Case should be closed.

The second was the terribly sad non clearance of Renaud Lavillenie. As he went over 6.07m, the bar jumped and did not land back in the proper place on the standard, hence, it was not counted. Lavillenie was unconsolable.

The truth is, Renaud Lavillenie will, more than likely have another one of those great days. Hopefully the guy goes higher than 6.07m. The truth is, world record days are one in a million, even for the best. All has to be working right, and those days, to be savored, are, infrequent. Renaud Lavillenie knew he was having one of those days.

Have to admit. I watched Okkert Brits of South Africa jump, I watched Sergey Bubka jump. Bubka is the world record holder. First man who I think can truly take a shot at the WR is French. Renaud Lavillenie is, truly, the new le roi de la perche. This guy has the speed, athleticism and most importantly, the swagger, to be the next great one. He mesmerized the stands last night with his jumps over 5.91m, 5.96m, 6.01m and, mon Dieu, when he cleared 6.07m, I thought my heart would stop! He did not believe it. I then looked at the screen from Omega and saw nothing on the screen. 6.07 meters was left for another day…

The bar after Lavillenie’s attempt at 6.07m,

photo courtesy of SPIKES mag

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RESULT OF THE DAY
Renaud Lavillenie clearing superb world lead of 601 cm, and the one “overdebated” 607 clearance/non-clearance (rules are clear).

SURPRISE OF THE DAY
Tezdzhan Naimova coming to Goteborg without a single indoor race winning the 60 m.

FAVORITE FALLS
Czech women in the 400 m without a medal, Jenny Meadows as title defender without a medal in the women 800 m, Alessia Trost world leader no medal in high jump.

AGENTS BY INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDALS
4 Pavel Voronkov, 2 Rene Auguin, Rachid Esmouni, 1 Alibey Shukurov, Robert Wagner, Daniel Wessfeldt, Jos Hermens, Salih Munir Yaras, Marcello Magnani, Sergey Shemigon, Alfonz Juck, Czeslaw Zapala, Aivar Karotamm, Ricky Simms, Gianni Demadonna, Jesus Olivan, Julia Garcia, Hans-Peter Bischoff. Without agent is Elco Sintnicolaas.

TOP FIGURES
Medals: 1. Russia 4-7-3, 2. Great Britain 4-3-1, 3. France 4-2-3, 4. Ukraine 2-1-1, 5. Spain 1-3-0, 6. Sweden 1-2-3, in total 19 countries got medals.
Points: 1. Russia 145, 2. Great Britain 99, 3. France 90, 4. Germany 60, 5. Sweden 59, 6. Czech Republic 55, in total 27 countries got points (position in top 8).
Multiple medalists: 1. Shakes-Drayton 2-0-0, 2. Levine and Child 1-1-0, 4. Maslak 1-0-1
World leads: 11 in 10 events
Championships record: 1
Other European leads: 10 in 5 events

CHAMPIONSHIPS WINNING MARKS 2013-2011
men 6:6 and hurdles the same
women 7:6

SUCCESFULL TITLE DEFENDERS
From 10 competing, four won (Kszczot, Lavillenie, Klishina, Nana Djimou). Lavillenie as only one also a hat trick with Torino 2009. From 10 Olympic medalists competing 8 got medals, without medal only Holzdeppe and Grabarz.

NEXT CHAMPIONSHIPS
Prague March 6-8, 2015 02 Arena

OTHER POINTS

THOUSANDS: Women 60 m Naimova 7.091 and Ryemyen 7.099, Okparaebo 7.155 and Sailer 7.157

SPECTATORS (unofficial): Thursday 1000, Friday morning 1500, Friday evening 3000, Saturday morning 2500, Saturday evening 5000. Sunday first session 3500, Sunday second session 5000. With ceremonies at Market Square coming into approximate total of 25 000. This is are just EME NEWS guess figures.

RELAYS: For first time one country won both relays at single championships. Top British splits Perri Shakes-Drayton 51.2 and Nigel Levine 45.8. Pavel Maslak clocked 45.94 as anchor but the fastest was Kevin Borlee 45.68.

STATS

400m: For the first time in history of European Indoor Championships, GBR won two medals at W400m.

800m: Adam Kszczot joined Noel Carroll, Yevgeniy Arzhanov, Antonio Paez and Yuriy Borzakovskiy as the multiple gold medalist at 800m in European Indoor Championships.

800m: Nataliya Lupu won first gold for UKR at W800m in European Indoor Championships.

400m: Maslak’s time 45.66 is the fastest 400m indoor time on Swedish soil.

TJ: The winning margin of 58cm of Saladukha is the largest at WTJ in Euro Indoor Champ.

SP: Christina Schwanitz won second medal in Euro Indoor Championships.

Heptathlon: The difference between 3rd and 4th, 4 points, is the second smallest in the history of European Indoor Championships. Eelco Sintinocolaas (NED) brought first medal of any kind to NED from heptathlon.

PV: The winning margin of 25cm is the second largest at PV in Euro Indoor Championships. The best 4th place mark at Euro Indoor 576m, was set by Filipidis. Lavillenie won third gold at PV in Euro Indoor, now tied with Vigneron but still trails Nordwig.

HJ: Ruth Beitia won first gold for ESP at WPV in Euro Indoor Championships. Beitia won fifth medals at Euro Indoor Championships, She now has complete medal set.

LJ: Menkov won first gold for RUS at LJ in Euro Indoor Champ, 8.31 by Menkov is the longest jump in SWE by an European.

1500m : 3:37.17 is the second fastest 1500m ever recorded at Euro Indoor Champ. The fastest is 3:36.70 by Heshko in 2005

60m: 0.00 is the lowest winning margin ever at W60m in Euro Indoor Champ.

4x400m: 3:27.56 is the championshps record. Best ever mark for third and fourth for Euro Indoor Champ were set. GBR won first gold at W4x400mR in Euro Indoor Championships. 3:27.56 is the fastest time in SWE.

4x400m: 3:05.78 by GBR is the second fastest 4x400mR time in Euro Indoor Champ.

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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