Joachim Olsen (DEN) leads the qualifiers in the men's Shot Putt in Madrid (© Getty Images)
Madrid, SpainOne major casualty, two well paced 3000 metres heats, an undoubted shot putting star, and the opening round of the 60m dash were the headlines from the Men's Events on the first morning session at the 28th European Indoor Championships, which are taking place in the newly rebuilt Palacio de Deportes Communidad de Madrid in the heart of the Spanish capital.
Idowu is the principal casualty
World season Triple Jump leader Phillips Idowu of Britain failed to proceed to the final, the principal overall upset of all the event qualification rounds which took place this morning in a noisy – the stadium was packed with 8000+ spectators, most of whom were school children – opening session.
The Triple Jump has been a low key event all winter and Idowu who had bounded to a 17.30 world lead at the UK Championships in Sheffield on the 13 February was the outstanding favourite for gold. The Briton’s season's best coming into this competition was 19 centimetres better than anyone else in Europe. However, he had a dismal three rounds with a best of 16.44 leaving him in overall 12th position from the two qualification groups who jumped simultaneously. That was four places short of a qualification spot for the final.
Leading the qualifiers for tomorrow evening’s final was Bulgaria’s Momchil Karaliev with a second round 17.15m PB, which to emphasise the overall poor quality of this discipline in 2005 was the only 17m+ jump of this qualifying competition. Russia’s Aleksandr Petrenko (16.88) and Ukraine’s Mykola Savolainen (16.87) were the next best.
Yet the weight of favourite now clearly rests on the shoulders of Russia’s Igor Spasovkhodskiy who qualified by virtue of his opening 16.79 performance. The Russian, one of only four Europeans (two competing here in Madrid) to have surpassed 17m this year (17.09 – 12 Feb) was the fourth best qualifier here. Spasovkhodskiy, 25 years old, is a class act, 2001 World bronze medallist, and holds an outdoor PB of 17.44m.
Olsen a class apart
There is also no doubting the principal player in the men’s Shot Put. Denmark’s Olympic bronze medallist Joachim Olsen who leads the continent this winter with 21.16 was the silver medallist in 2002 and looks certain to go one better this year. The Dane who can also boast a World Indoor bronze in 2003 had a low key start to the morning with a personally poor 19.92m but Olsen’s rotation is so consistently rapid and controlled that it was clearly just a hiccup. That opinion was confirmed with a 20.67m second effort which led the qualifiers.
Rutger Smith (NED) with a 20.46m season’s best was the surprise second placer, with Slovakia’s Mikulás Konopka’s also putting a best of 20.46. Spain’s defending champion Manuel Martínez set the crowd wild with his 20.30m, while another two of the overall eight qualifiers also went over 20m – Ivan Yushkov (20.06) and Ville Tiisanoja (20.04).
Yet Olsen is already convinced which way the final will unfold – “Martinez, Konopka and myself will probably be on the podium.”
Well paced heats
The two 3000m heats were very straight forward affairs thanks to some dominant front running. World season leader Alistair Cragg (IRL) in heat one, won from gun to tape in 7:54.91. Intentionally slowing in the home straight having at sometime held a 30m+ advantage over the field, he was followed home by Britain’s Mohammed Farah (7:54.99 – PB), with Moktar Benhari of France (7:55.34) and Russian Sergey Ivanov (7:55.51 – PB), who had been in the lead of the chasing pack throughout, the other two qualifiers.
Cragg’s compatriot Mark Carroll who won at these championships in 2000 took heat 2 out in a similarly honest fashion, and was later aided in the task by Austria’s Günther Weidlinger. The result was a near mirror clocking to the first heat. The first four home who automatically qualified were, in reverse order, the two ‘pacemakers’ Carroll (4th 7:55.18) and Weidlinger (3rd 7:54.94), with Britain’s two-time bronze medallist John Mayock (2nd 7:54.83) and, to the delight of the home crowd, Reyes Estevez (ESP - 1st 7:54.63) powering late-on in the race to take the top spots.
The two heats were equally even in terms of the four fastest overall qualifiers, two coming from each heat – Heat 1: Pavel Naumov (7:56.66, 5th) and Martin Pröll (7:58.45, 6th) and Heat 2: Pavel Shapovalov (7:55.78, 5th), Henrik Skoog (7:58.82, 6th) - so completing the twelve man final tomorrow evening.
Pognon is as smooth as silk but Gardener’s the faster
The morning was concluded with the opening round of the men’s 60m dash. Four heats were run and the two expected protagonists clearly made their way to the top. France’s Ronald Pognon won heat two in 6.59 seconds, cutting through the field of six opponents as smooth as silk. This is a sprinter ready to give a lot more during this weekend.
Yet the Frenchman was not the quickest of this opening round. Britain’s reigning double champion Jason Gardener might have not been as slick as the man from the French West Indies but his power was there for all to see. A 6.58 dash was enough to win the final heat and top the qualifiers.
Not to be discounted as the championships progress are the other two heat winners, the much improved Pole Lukasz Chyla (6.63) who got proceedings underway, and the Italian Luca Verdecchia (6.62) who surprisingly beat Britain’s Mark Lewis Francis (6.64) in heat three.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
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