News05 Mar 2005


Irish night of triumph - European Indoor Champs - DAY TWO - PM session - Men’s events

FacebookTwitterEmail

Alistair Cragg of Ireland celebrates 3000m gold in Madrid (© Getty Images)

Madrid, SpainThe 60 metres Final may as usual have been in the spotlight producing a marvellous third successive gold medal for Britain’s Jason Gardener but with titles going to David Gillick (400m) and then Alistair Cragg (3000m) there was no denying that the second evening session of the 28th European Indoor Championships was all about Ireland.

Gardener makes it three golds

First time away, the men’s 60m Final which was expected to be an epic Anglo-French duel in the guise of the former and current European record holders, respectively reigning two-time champion Jason Gardener and Ronald Pognon, turned out to be a one man show.

Gardener who is also the reigning World champion executed a devastating gun to tape win. Crisply away from the blocks the Englishman was never headed after the first five metres or so, setting a personal season’s best of 6.55 seconds. His compatriot Mark Lewis-Francis in his wake ran to the silver, also in a season’s best, 6.59. This was a repeat of the result at the 2002 championships.

In third came Pognon but in 60m sprinting terms he was a distant bronze medallist, clocking 6.62, the same time as fourth placer Kostyantyn Vasyukov of Ukraine.

“This one is for me, I have dedicated enough gold medals to other people,“ laughed Gardener. “The Frenchman Pognon was the outright favourite for gold but I believed I could come here and perform, and I’m just so glad I could come here, set a season’s best and bring the gold back to Britain.”

But away from the blue-riband of the sprint this was undeniably Ireland’s night with two gold medals coming in the space of one hour of athletic magic in the Palacio de Deportes Communidad de Madrid this evening.

Gillick takes surprise gold

Ireland’s David Gillick overcame a shoulder to shoulder battle with Russia’s Dmitriy Forshev on the final bend of the 400m Final to take a most memorable gold medal. In the process he denied Spain’s David Canal the title which the packed 9500 crowd had come to witness him receive.

Canal, the European season’s leader with 45.93 (on this track on 20 Feb) was determined to control the race from the gun and fended off an attack from Forshev on the very first bend. The positions stayed like this with Spain ahead of Russia into the second lap with Canal establishing what looked like a comfortable lead as the race headed into the final bend. However, this was the point at which Gillick made his move, and after a clash with Forshev which would have left many athletes crashing to the deck, the Irishman not only managed to stay on his feet but moved into second place at the crown of the bend. The final straight saw the Gillick closing stride by stride on the unsuspecting Canal, who 15 metres from the finish relinquished the lead and his grasp on gold.

Gillick crossed first in 46.30, with Canal in silver (46.64), with Germany’s Sebastian Gatzka taking the minor podium place (46.88). Forshev, who was at the centre of so much of the action, finished fourth (47.37).

Cragg’s solo run to gold

With the hosts denied gold in the 400m the dreams of the crowd, if not their focus because the women’s and men’s 60m finals came next, immediately turned to Reyes Estevez and the men’s 3000m final. Surely here in the second fastest runner of the European winter (7:43.80), someone with specialist 1500m speed, Spain would discover its Midas touch.

Yet Spanish hopes again came crashing to reality when with six laps remaining Alistair Cragg of Ireland, the fastest 3000m performer in the world this winter (7:39.89 – Boston 29 Jan) put his foot on the gas and ultimately established a lead of approximately 20 metres over the field. It was a substantial moment of middle/long distance running, and proved that his victory over Ethiopia’s Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele earlier this year in Boston cannot be just dismissed as due only to the Ethiopian’s misjudgement.

Estevez, who also runs in tomorrow’s 1500m final certainly did not need convincing about the potency of the Irishman’s move and after initially attempting to close the gap decided to conserve as a much energy as possible and fight for silver.

Cragg crossed the line alone, a splendid victor in 7:46.32. In the run into the finish for the minor medals Austria’s Günther Weidlinger was beaten by Estevez, who in turn in the final straight was overtaken by Britain’s John Mayock, the bronze medallist from the last two championships. Mayock’s time for silver was 7:51.46, Estevez’s 7:51.65 grabbed bronze, and the Austrian was an unlucky fourth in 7:52.35.

“With 5 laps to go I was feeling really bad (with the heat) my head was pounding," said Cragg. "I felt I had it (the race) in the bag when I looked back and saw Estevez was not running with me anymore.”

Olsen takes title with first time effort

The class act of the European winter of 2005 deservedly won the Shot Put title. Joachim Olsen of Denmark, the silver medallist in 2002, who led the field with a season’s best of 21.16m coming into this final, spun out an even mightier heave (21.19) with his first effort to demolish all realistic hopes of gold for his seven competitors. Olsen backed that up his best with a fine series - 20.76, 20.52, 20.81 - before fouling his final two efforts.

As much, as the Spanish crowd tried they could not motivate their defending champion Manual Martinez to come anywhere near the vicinity of the Dane’s brilliance. Martinez’s best was 20.51 in the fourth round, a distance he repeated on his last effort.

It was not even good enough for silver because the real surprise of the whole championship Rutger Smith of The Netherlands (he had qualified as the second best putter yesterday – 20.46m a season’s best) already had 20.51 (2nd put) to his credit and improved that to 20.79 in the fourth round to take the silver medal. Smith backed up his new found status with a 20.78m put in the fifth.

Pavlov adds continental crown to World title

Entering cleanly at the height of 5.60m, World champion Igor Pavlov of Russia produced a pretty good jumping card through 5.70 (2nd), 5.75 (1st), 5.80 (1st), 5.85 (2nd), and finally a world indoor season’s lead and championship record equalling 5.90m on his first attempt to win the Pole Vault gold.

However, all had looked so different earlier on in the competition as the event with the exception of Pavlov, Ukraine’s Denys Yurchenko, and Germany’s Björn Otto, looked like it was about to be concluded around and about 5.70m but then suddenly two more Germans, defending champion Tim Lobinger and Fabian Schulze both were successful on third time attempts at that height, and the event was transformed.

Ultimately, Otto and Schulze were to go no higher than 5.70 but ahead the Ukrainian and Pavlov took 5.75 on their firsts and Lobinger did the same at 5.80, as did Pavlov. The German though, after failing at 5.85 first time moved on to 5.90 and was equally unsuccessful with his remaining two vaults. That left both Yurchenko and Pavlov, who both cleared 5.85 on their second jumps, out alone, with the silver medal going to the former after he failed at 5.90 (1 attempt) / 5.95 (two attempts).

Saved by round five

The world of men’s Triple Jumping owes a very big thank you to Russia’s Igor Spasovkhodskiy because coming into the fifth round of today’s final we were in a down-beat situation with the lead in a major championship being held at 16.98m. With the exception of an even worse offering in 1996, this final was shaping up to be the lowest rated competition in the history of these championships since 1980!

Spasovkhodskiy, 25, the 2001 World bronze medallist who until that point had produced a personal competition to rival the mediocrity of the final overall (three fouls, then 16.64m) thankfully strode down the runway and tripled out to 17.20 – a PB. It was way, way enough to win the competition, though he backed it up with 16.93 in the 6th round. A little magic was alive in that fifth round as Mykola Savolainen of the Ukraine also crossed 17m with a jump of 17.01 to take silver – only the fifth European over 17m in 2005 – and a fourth place also brought a PB for Britain’s Nathan Douglas (16.89). The previous leader of the final, Russian Aleksandr Petrenko (16.98 PB) had to settle for bronze. Respectability had been regained. Thank you, Igor.

Qualification

The 200m semi-final stage brought comfortable qualification for the final for all three heat winners. Poland’s defending champion Marcin Urbas (20.88), Tobias Unger of Germany (20.64) and Britain’s Chris Lambert (20.74 – PB). From the second place finishers from each race who automatically qualified, Ukraine’s Dmytro Glushchenko’s 20.89 behind Lambert was a PB. Tim Abeyie (GBR – 20.93) and The Netherlands’ Guus Hoogmoed (20.86) are the remaining finalists.

All the favourites in the 60m Hurdles passed without hindrance through round one – Stanislav Olijar (LAT – 7.59sec), Elmar Lichtenegger (AUT – 7.62) and Ladji Doucouré (FRA – 7.64). These men were split by Sweden’s Philip Nossmy (3rd fastest, 7.63).

Chris Turner for the IAAF

Click here for FULL RESULTS

 

Pages related to this article
Disciplines
Loading...