Zurich Diary: European Champs Updates, by Alfons Jucks, EME NEWS

Renaud Lavillenie, photo by PhotoRun.net

With less than 48 hours before the start of the 2014 European championships, over 1400 athletes from the 50 countries in Europe will be converging on Zurich, not to say anything about the tens of thousands of fans. Here are some last minute news items on the Champs, from our friend, Alfons Juck.

ZURICH NEWS

MOSCOW (RUS): High jump London Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov and triple jump world indoor champion Yekaterina Koneva were named captains of Russian athletics team at European championships in Zurich. “I couldn’t attend team meeting that is why I knew about my election later. It was nice to know that all the team trusts me but in the same time, that is additional responsibility,” said Ukhov, He also added: “Everything is in order and I’m ready for medal fight in Zurich physically as well as mentally feeling enthusiastic.” Koneva told that her teammates Anna Shchagina and Anna Klyashtornaya sewed for her special handmade soft toy horse. “As I became the team captain, this gee-gee will be the mascot of all our team. I hope it’ll help us in Zurich,” said Koneva.

MOSCOW (RUS): 24 years is the average age of Russian national team at European championships. “There are many young athletes in our team for Zurich, including two 17-year-old girls: pole vault world junior champion Alyona Lutkovskaya and 100m national youth record holder Kristina Sivkova. We are aiming to fight for the first place in team standings. But we are aware it’ll be not easy,” said president of All-Russian athletic federation Valentin Balakhnichev.

MUNCHEN (GER): German pole vaulter Malte Mohr has withdrawn from the European Championships citing technical problems. The 28 year old has no heighted in four of his last five competitions. Germany are also without World champion Raphael Holzdeppe and Olympic silver medallist Bjorn Otto. Their highest vaulter this year is Karsten Dilla, although he has also recent no heights to his name. The second pole vaulter in the team is Tobias Scherbarth.

ZURICH (SUI): Swiss Team aims for at least one medal, six positions in top 8 and another 8 positions in top 16. Said Peter Haas, responsible for the national team at Swiss Athletics. Number one in Europe is the marathon runner Tadesse Abraham. Switzerland has the biggest team ever at the championships with 53 athletes (27 women and 26 men). The team presentation was organised in the Swiss House

ZURICH (SUI): The European Athletics website will be an excellent source of information related to the European Athletics Championships in Zurich from 12-17 August. A live stream will be available on the www.european-athletics.orghomepage throughout the championships with English commentary and nine additional feeds will be running at http://eurovision.digotel.com/ea/index.html so you can choose which events you wish to see. Results will be displayed in real time and we will be running a live blog to curate all the best news, photos, videos and social media reactions from athletes, coaches and fans during the events. EA news team will provide day-by-day previews every morning before the events get underway and in case you missed anything, summaries after the morning and evening sessions as well as gold medal feature stories. Be sure to also follow and interact via twitter @EuroAthletics and @Euro_Champs. Video interviews of athletes will be shared on YouTube channel:youtube.com/europeanathletics.

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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