Krisztian Pars in Kuortane (© Paula Noronen)
Belarus got off to a fine start on the
first day of the European Team Championships first league in Bergen,
Norway.
Belarus collected only two wins on the first day, but had no bad failures, either. It's leading score is 173 points, well ahead of Finland and Belgium, who have each tallied 152.
The battle for places two and three and promotion to the top division next year's will be hard: Norway is in fourth with 148 points, just ahead of Hungary with 147. Two from the trio of Switzerland (107), Estonia (101.5) and Serbia (101) will be relegated into the second league.
Yury Bialou in the men's Shot Put and Krystina Viadzernikava in the Women's 400m Hurdles were the Belarussian winners on Saturday. Bialou set his winning mark of 19.74m in the final round, but would have won also with his second one, which flew 19.66m.
Finland got three victories, but on the other hand scored no points in two events. In the Long Jump, Tommi Evilä had to fight hard against Switzerland's Julian Fivaz. Both leaped 7.83m in the second round, before the Finn improved to 7.90m with his last attempt.
In the Field Events only four the best were qualified for the fourth and last round, and after two rounds half of the pack of 12 athletes were eliminated. Evilä, World bronze medallist in 2005, did not like the system.
"Especially when the wind is tricky, as it was today, everybody wants just to secure the qualifying result in rounds one or two. I think, this system doesn't give very much for the spectators, either," Evilä said.
The reigning Olympic Hammer Throw champion, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia, agreed with Evilä.
"In this system, the final placing is too much up to luck. I think it can't be used in the major championships, because it's not good fot athletes, spectators or athletics itself," said Kozmus.
Kozmus placed second in Bergen with 77.34m, as Hungary's Krisztian Pars showed again that he is the most consistent Hammer Thrower in the World two months before the IAAF World Champsionships in Berlin.
But it was not easy even for Pars in the first round: 74.54m, but then 76.89m, 77.35m and 77.78m. Belarussian Pavel Kryvitski made an exceptionm as he set his best mark of 77.21m already in the second round.
Finland got no points in the Women's 5000m, in which Johanna Lehtinen was eliminated after the last of three elimination rounds. In the Women's 4x100m relay Finland was disqualified.
Belgium's name of the day was Cedric van Branteghem, who won the men's 400m, but only 0.04 seconds ahead of Finland's Matti Välimäki, who ran his PB 46.83.
Home team Norway got a jackpot in the 100m races. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure won the men's race in 10.14 and Ezinne Okparaebo in Women's (11.51).
Worth mentioning are two winners, who have been in the top level of the sport for 20 years: Serbia's Dragutin Topic (age 38) cleared 2.29m in the men's High Jump and Romania's Nicoleta Grasu (37) reached 62.51m in the Women's Discus.
A-P Sonninen for the IAAF
Click here for full results
Belarus collected only two wins on the first day, but had no bad failures, either. It's leading score is 173 points, well ahead of Finland and Belgium, who have each tallied 152.
The battle for places two and three and promotion to the top division next year's will be hard: Norway is in fourth with 148 points, just ahead of Hungary with 147. Two from the trio of Switzerland (107), Estonia (101.5) and Serbia (101) will be relegated into the second league.
Yury Bialou in the men's Shot Put and Krystina Viadzernikava in the Women's 400m Hurdles were the Belarussian winners on Saturday. Bialou set his winning mark of 19.74m in the final round, but would have won also with his second one, which flew 19.66m.
Finland got three victories, but on the other hand scored no points in two events. In the Long Jump, Tommi Evilä had to fight hard against Switzerland's Julian Fivaz. Both leaped 7.83m in the second round, before the Finn improved to 7.90m with his last attempt.
In the Field Events only four the best were qualified for the fourth and last round, and after two rounds half of the pack of 12 athletes were eliminated. Evilä, World bronze medallist in 2005, did not like the system.
"Especially when the wind is tricky, as it was today, everybody wants just to secure the qualifying result in rounds one or two. I think, this system doesn't give very much for the spectators, either," Evilä said.
The reigning Olympic Hammer Throw champion, Primoz Kozmus of Slovenia, agreed with Evilä.
"In this system, the final placing is too much up to luck. I think it can't be used in the major championships, because it's not good fot athletes, spectators or athletics itself," said Kozmus.
Kozmus placed second in Bergen with 77.34m, as Hungary's Krisztian Pars showed again that he is the most consistent Hammer Thrower in the World two months before the IAAF World Champsionships in Berlin.
But it was not easy even for Pars in the first round: 74.54m, but then 76.89m, 77.35m and 77.78m. Belarussian Pavel Kryvitski made an exceptionm as he set his best mark of 77.21m already in the second round.
Finland got no points in the Women's 5000m, in which Johanna Lehtinen was eliminated after the last of three elimination rounds. In the Women's 4x100m relay Finland was disqualified.
Belgium's name of the day was Cedric van Branteghem, who won the men's 400m, but only 0.04 seconds ahead of Finland's Matti Välimäki, who ran his PB 46.83.
Home team Norway got a jackpot in the 100m races. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure won the men's race in 10.14 and Ezinne Okparaebo in Women's (11.51).
Worth mentioning are two winners, who have been in the top level of the sport for 20 years: Serbia's Dragutin Topic (age 38) cleared 2.29m in the men's High Jump and Romania's Nicoleta Grasu (37) reached 62.51m in the Women's Discus.
A-P Sonninen for the IAAF
Click here for full results
