Ukraine’s Tatyana Dyachenko, 19, the World Junior champion, wins European U20 Triple Jump title in Kaunas (© Mark Shearman)
The small east European Adriatic nation of Croatia enjoyed an historic 400m double on day two of the European Junior Championships at a wet and windy Kaunas.
And there is more success to come…
Danijela Grgic, who won a 400m silver medal at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Marrakech last week, went one step better in Lithuania to destroy the opposition with a totally dominant to display to win the women’s 400m in 52.42.
Just over an hour and a half later Zeljko Vincek backed up his team-mates success by taking the men’s one-lap title in 46.14 from lane eight. It is the first time the double has been achieved in these championships since Great Britain managed the feat in 1991.
It is a remarkable success story for Croatia, a nation with a population of 4.5m, and according to the vice-president of Croatian Athletics there is more success to come.
“We expected this today,” he said of winning double gold with two athletes ranked No.1 in Europe coming into the event.
“But tomorrow we will also win the 400m Hurdles with Milan Kotur.”
For Grgic, 17, it was an incredible victory coming just a week after winning the silver in the global under-18 championships in Morocco. She ran out the winner by almost a second from Russia’s Ksenia Zadorina (53.39) with highly-rated Angela Morosanu of Romania winding up third in 53.48.
Grgic, who emulated the achievements of her countrywoman Pristina Perica who took this title eight years ago, said: “Today is not the first and it is not the end as I am dreaming about the Olympic Games.”
Vincek, who won the 400m bronze at the 2003 IAAF World Youth Championships, negotiated the problematic lane eight – he misjudged qualifying from the semi-finals and was third – to overhaul Great Britain’s Martyn Rooney down the home straight to clinch the gold medal.
Rooney had to settle for the silver medal in 46.56 and it was one of six medals won during in a very successful evening for the British team.
Triple success for Britain
Britain became the first nation in the 35-year history of the championships to claim a clean sweep in the men’s 100m as Craig Pickering edged out Simeon Williamson by one-hundredth of a second in 10.51 with Alex Nelson, the world youth silver medallist, clinched the bronze medal in 10.60. The wind was negligible at +0.1m/s but the overcast conditions and damp track made sprinting difficult.
Pickering said: “This is the one race I wanted to win all year. The key was my quick-start. I have not been starting well but today I got out of the blocks quickly.”
Britain also enjoyed success in the women’s 5000m as Emily Pidgeon, aged 16, the youngest member of the British squad, forged ahead with 550m remaining to win in 16:14.71 from long-time leader Tatyana Azorkina, of Russia, (16:18.60).
Greg Rutherford completed a British gold medal hat-trick by taking the Long Jump in style with a national junior record of 8.14m with his final leap – only 3cm short of the championships record set 18 years ago by Soviet jumper Vladimir Ochkan. Rutherford, in his first major international competition, led from his second round jump of 7.95m and produced the four longest jumps of the competition.
Home favourite beaten in women’s 100m
In the women’s 100m, Poland’s Iwona Brzezinska broke Lithuanian hearts as she pipped Lina Grincikaite, the home favourite, to take the women’s 100m title by two-hundredths of a second in a new personal best of 11.67.
Brzezinska made much the better start and although the Lithuanian, who was a world youth finalist in 2003, was closing with every stride in the latter stages, the Pole hung on to win.
In the men’s Shot Put, Remigius Machura, son of Remigius senior, who won the senior bronze medal at the inaugural world championships in 1983, launched the shot out to 20.09m to win gold with his fifth round effort.
Ukraine’s Tatyana Dyachenko, 19, the World Junior champion, added the European Triple Jump title and bettered her own national junior record by one centimetre with 14.04m.
In the women’s Discus Throw, Germany’s Kristina Gehrig won with 50.60m to defeat pre-event favourite Lilana Ca of Portugal (49.69m), who took the silver medal and at least had the satisfaction of claiming her country’s first ever throwing medal.
By an IAAF Correspondent
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