Britons
impress in early action in Vienna
Sean Wallace-Jones for the IAAF
1 March 2002 – Vienna, Austria –
Getting off to a normally slow start, despite the number of events taking place in the
clustered indoor arena of the Ferry Dusika Stadium, the first morning’s action at this 27th
edition of the European Indoor Championships was largely a showcase for British sprint
talent.
Colin Jackson’s pre-event confidence seemed justified as he dominated the 60 metre hurdles heats with an easy 7.55 second win.
“I am very pleased with my performance in the heats,” said the 35 year old Welshman. “I went out very fast to the first hurdle as planned and it turned out just fine.
“The warm up is going to be important for the semi, as I want to improve some aspects of my technique.”
Although Jackson is still a strong favourite for a third title at the event (and a fourth European indoor gold), he will face striong competition from Latvia’s Stanislas Olijars (7.61 in heat 2), local favourite Elmar Lichtenegger of Austria and Germany’s Florian Schwarthof (both timed at 7.66 in their heat). Lichtenegger did not hear the recall after a false start and ran to the finish line before returning to the start.
“Everything was bad from start to finish,” said the disgruntled Austrian after winning his heat.
“I made many mistakes, I had no explosion out of the blocks because of the second false start, I didn’t hear the recall and ran the full distance. That was a perfect race.
“If I think positively, so the two heats were a good test for tomorrow.”
In the 200m, three Britons are seeking a clean sweep of the medals and all of them won their respective heats.
Daniel Caines, the reigning world indoor champion over 400m, who dropped down a distance to run the 200m set a personal best for the event of 20.67sec.
The defending European champion and silver medallist at last year’s World Indoors, Christian Malcolm, looked easy in 20.83 and Doug Turner made up the trio with 20.86 in his heat.
France’s reigning 200 m European champion (indoors) Muriel Hurtis started her title defence with a stunning 22.74 performance, with her closest challenger on time Gaby Rockmeier of Germany, who ran a personal best of 22.99.