Christian Olsson winning the men's triple jump final (© Getty Images)
Sweden´s men and Poland´s women won the European Cup first league match in Lappeenranta, Finland, while in Velenje, Slovenia, The Netherlands took a surprise men's win, and Ukraine dominated the women's competition.
Lappeenranta - Finland
Sweden's men had a very good second day with no prominent failures. The final points tally was Sweden 125 points, Finland 113, Hungary 104, Belgium 89, Belarus 83, Norway 77, Denmark 67 and Estonia 60 points.
Poland dominated the women's competition from the very beginning and gathered a total of 125 points. Finland and Sweden both ended up with 104 points, but the Finns took more victories and so placed second. Belarus was fourth with 100 points, then Hungary 99, Belgium 99.5, Ireland 58 and Lithuania 47.5 points.
The weather in Lappeenranta on Sunday was a little bit better than on Saturday: + 13 to 14 C degrees, rainshowers but not too much wind. Some very good competitions and results were made.
The Swedish jumpers and runners were excellent
The European Triple Jump champion Christian Olsson surprised nobody by jumping four times over 17 metres, with 17.38 in the third round.
"I think I´ll compete at high next Sunday in Båstad. My triple jump techinque is so stable that also competing at Long or High Jump does not affect it," said Olsson.
Double World Indoor champion Kajsa Bergqvist won the women´s High Jump easily with 1.96m, but 2.00m was too much on this occasion.
"It was a bit hard to get the motivation for jumping high, but I always like competing for my country in cups and matches against Finland," confirmed Bergqvist.
Sweden's Patrik Kristiansson won the men´s Pole Vault with 5.55m just ahead of 19-year-old Finn Matti Mononen who fought him hard and placed second with 5.50m.
Sweden won four races on the track: Erik Sjöqvist at 200m (20.58 - but windy +2,4 m/s), Rickard Pell at 800m (1:49.13), Erik Sjöqvist at 5000 m (7:55.30) and Robert Kronberg at 110m Hurdles (13.58).
Kronberg, an Olympic finalist in Sydney, beat Finland´s Matti Niemi by just 0,01 seconds. Niemi's 13.59 was a new personal best.
The Finnish crowd cheered distance runner Jukka Keskisalo (22 years old), who took a double win by taking his specialist steeplechase event (new personal best 8:26.36) to go along with yesterday's 1500m flat win. Keskisalo was much faster in the last km than Norway´s Jim Svenöy, European bronze medallist in 1998.
Also Alesya Turova of Belarus was another double winner capturing the women´s 1500m, as she did the steeplechase on Saturday.
Sini Pöyry took the Finnish women's only victory on Sunday. Pöyry threw the hammer three times over 66 metres, and won with 67.64. Pöyry placed fith at the European Championships last year.
Norway´s Andreas Thorkildsen, the World Junior Record holder was the only man to throw the javelin over 80 metres (81.42). Finland´s Aki Parviainen, the 1999 World champion had a minor knee inury and could not compete.
Kim Gevaert of Belgium took revenge over Finland´s Johanna Manninen, who had won the 100m yesterday. Over 200m, Gevaert ran 22.81. Heptathlete Carolina Kluft juggling this race with the Long Jump was second (23.20), and Manninen third (23.30).
Poland´s Aurelia Trywianska was fastest at 100m Hurdles with her PB of 12.84, but Sweden´s Susanna Kallur also set a good time of 12.99 in second.
RESULTS from Lappeenranta
The Netherlands took a surprise men's win from Ukraine and the Czech Republic, while Ukraine dominated the women's competition.
