by Stuart Weir
How can you not love a mascot called the Gingerbread Man, aka Katarzynka? photo by Euopean Athletics
Netherlands won both Men’s and Women’s 4x400m! photo by Euopean Athletics
Mondo Duplantis, photo by Euopean Athletics
This is Stuart Weir’s first piece on Sunday and the last day of the 36th Euopean Athletics Indoor Championships.
Sunday round-up
Seven sessions of athletics, spread over four days, came to an end on Sunday evening with 12 finals in just over 2 hours. The final session had everything – excellence, excitement, the unexpected, sisterly rivalry, false starts and photo finishes, thankfully no disqualifications for lane infringements, Mondo Duplantis clearing 6 meters and like all good championships it came to an end with the women’s 4 by 400m relay. And like all really good championship finales, Britain were in the medals in both relays.
Gingerbread from Torun, photo by European Athletics
The only sad news today was the withdrawal of the host country’s men’s relay team because two of the athletes had tested positive. We also lost an athlete from the hurdles for the same reason. ToruÅ„ had been a great host and the mascot, Katarzynka, the gingerbread man, felt like a friend. And don’t forget that making gingerbread since the Middle Ages is what first put the city of ToruÅ„ on the map. Hosting athletics is also what the city is known for. I was struck, reading the flash quotes, how many athletes referred to previous excellent performances in the city and their promise to return again one day.
The Gingerbread Man was all over! photo by European Athletics
The afternoon program started with two hotly contested sprint hurdles races; then the men’s pole vault and the women’s triple jump started followed by the women’s high jump ensuring that all the track events have a backdrop of jumps. The heptathlon came to a conclusion.
Cindy Sember, Nadinne Viser go silver and gold, respectively in 60m hurdles, photo by European Athletics
We had the shortest event for women, 60m, and the longest for men – 3000m. The highlights, if one can pick just one in an absorbing program, were the two 800m races. Jakob Ingebrigsten completed a double, adding the 3000m to the previous days 1500m, running a PR and without any controversy.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen doubles in 1,500m and 3000m, photo by European Athletics
Netherlands won both the relays to put them top of the medal table with 4 golds and seven medals in total. Portugal was second with three medals – dealing only in gold! Britain topped the other medal table of most medals in total with 12 followed by Poland with ten, but only one gold. Twenty-two countries gained at least one medal.
Netherlands won both Men’s and Women’s 4x400m! photo by Euopean Athletics
Results
Men
800m Patryk Dobek (Poland) 1:46.81 PR
3000m Jakob Ingebrigsten (Norway) 7:48.20 PR
60m hurdles Wilhem Belocian (France) 7.42
Pole-vault Mondo Duplantis (Sweden) 6:05
High Jump Maksim Nedaseku (Belarus) 2.37
Triple Jump Pedro Pablo Picardo (Portugal) 17.30
4 by 400 relay Netherlands 3:06.06
Heptathlon Kevin Mayer (France) 6392
Mondo Duplantis, photo by European Athletics
Women
60m Ajla del Ponte (Switzerland) 7.03 WL
Ajla Del Pointe, photo by European Athletics
800m Keely Hodgkinson (GB) 2:03.88
60m hurdles Nadine Visser (Netherlands) 7.77
4 by 400 relay Netherlands 3:27.15
Triple Jump Patricia Mamona (Portugal) 14.53 NR
High Jump Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine) 2.00
Yaroslava Mahuchikh. photo by European Athletics
