MEN’s Summary - European Indoor Champs, Day TWO - PM Session

Fabrizio Donato’s Triple Jump victory, the first medal for the host nation at the 30th European Athletics Indoor Championships was the undoubted highlight for the crowd this evening in Turin’s Oval Lingotto.

In the other finals, Russia’s Ivan Ukhov was the winner of the men’s High Jump as expected, the 3000m title went to Britain’s Mo Farah in a championship record, and the Swedish / Italian battle for 400m gold transpired as predicted with Johan Wissman dominating local hope Claudio Licciardello who did enough to secure silver.

The semi-final stage of the men’s 60m threw up the other headline of the second evening session of these championships. Dwain Chambers set a European record, with a 6.42 sec clocking, making the Briton the third fastest sprinter in history behind USA’s Maurice Greene (6.39) and Andre Cason (6.41). The second quickest of the semis was team-mate Simeon Williamson (6.57) and Italy’s Fabio Cerutti was next fastest (6.60).

Italian gold - "Only one jump made the difference"

You can rarely upstage the atmosphere conjured-up by a home win at a major championship but Fabrizio Donato could hardly be said to have kept the stadium entertained throughout this afternoon's Triple Jump final.

The Italians which made up the majority of the spectators will have found watching their national champion and record holder perform today more of a horror than a pleasure. It was only Donato’s fifth round effort which uplifted a pretty silent audience. But what a joyful moment that turned out to be for the host nation.

Until that point in the competition Donato, who had set the national record of 17.42m on this runway at their championships a fortnight ago, had failed to register a performance and lay without a ranking at the foot of the eight man results card.

But as Donato cut the sand on his fifth landing the 32-year-old already sensed he had dragged a remarkable victory from the jaws of defeat and with the white flag raised he was already celebrating way before the scoreboard displayed 17.59m.

The result was a world season lead, a national and championship record, and sensing that without France’s Teddy Tamgho, the previous world leader, around to challenge the mark – the World Junior champion had failed to qualify for the final yesterday – Donato was able to pass his last effort.

Ending up with the silver by virtue of a second round 17.25m PB was Ukraine’s Viktor Yastrebov, who incidentally registered only one more jump this afternoon than the winner, a first round 16.94 his other recorded effort. Bronze went to Igor Spasovkhodskiy of Russia (17.15) who had won this title in 2005, while the only other athlete over 17m was France’s Karl Taillepierre (17.12m; 4th).

With one performance today Donato delighted Italy, turning an otherwise lifeless competition into truly one of the highlights.

The champion succinctly summed up the final – “Only one jump made the difference! Sometimes I mess up my jumps and make everything tough…. I was lucky after four fouls but I managed to keep my focus.”

Ukhov rehabilitates reputation

The High Jump was a one man show with only that athlete successfully over flying 2.30m, the benchmark of top international competition, thanks to his winning first time clearance at 2.32. 

Russia’s Ivan Ukhov, the world season leader (2.40) has been the pre-eminent high jumper of this winter. He retained his tremendous consistency today as with the exception of one slight hiccup at 2.25m – which he failed on his first attempt – all his other heights (2.15; 2.20; 2.29 and 2.32) were taken on the first time of asking.

Compatriot Aleksey Dmitrik and Cypriot Kyriakos Ioannou took joint silver unable to be split on count-back at 2.29. Another three of the finalists also made this height.

Ukhov ended his competition as soon as his victory was secure which surprised many in the audience who perhaps had expected him to make a try at either the World (2.43) or European (2.42) indoor records.

But today was not about statistics for the winner it was about wiping the slate clean in terms of his character. This final was about one man and his battle to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the athletics world following the damage done after his drunken escapade at the Lausanne Super Grand prix meeting last summer, which was made famous to millions worldwide via a video on U-Tube which showed him staggering and swaying around the infield. His conduct there resulted in the IAAF issuing the 2005 European Junior champion with a public warning last November.

“My only task this weekend was to win this competition,” said Ukhov “…I did everything to become the winner and to show I’m a good athlete and improve my name after Lausanne last year. Its true 2.32 is not that high for me but it was already high enough for the others.”

Farah’s front run record

The three British runners – Mark Draper, Mo Farah and Nick McCormick – set off in tandem from the gun but within a couple of laps the true script for this 3000m final was revealed as France’s steeplechase specialist Bob Tahri made his move settling onto the shoulder of Farah who at 800m (2:02.06) had taken the lead. This final was run at a very even pace (1500m halves of 3:50.0 and 3:49.9) and that tempo was nearly solely down to Farah the British record holder (7:34.47).

Despite Tahri’s dogged pursuit of his British rival he always remained a stride adrift until with two laps to go Farah’s relentless rhythm helped him break away from his shadow. The Briton crossed in 7:40.17 a championship record, Tahri was second (7:42.14). In bronze but never in the hunt for the main prize was Spain’s Jesus Espana (7:43.29), the European 5000m champion.

“This title means a lot for me after many injuries,” said Farah who was born a Somali and first came to Britain in 1993.

Wissman not pressed in the end

Donato’s victory had whetted Italy’s appetite for gold and in Claudio Licciardello who entered the 400m final as the world season leader (46.03) they had another good medal prospect. His main opponent for the title, after two-time champion David Gillick of Ireland failed to make the final yesterday, was Sweden’s Johan Wissman the 2008 World Indoor silver medallist.

As the athletes broke from their lanes it was the Swede who fought himself to the front and while Licciardello made a good effort to challenge, going around Romania’s Ioan Vieru on the crest of the third bend, he could never get close enough to the powerfully built Sweden to initiate let alone successfully carry off a passing manoeuvre.

As the final straight was entered Wissman pulled away for a dominant victory and the Italian’s legs began to falter though he did enough to hold on for silver (46.32) ahead of Vieru (46.54). The Swede's  winning time was 45.89 sec, an enormous improvement on Licciardello’s world lead and a personal best for the victor.

Borzakovskiy and Claesson leave nothing to doubt

The two 800m semi-finals brought largely front run victories from the two favourites, Russia’s Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Swede Mattias Claesson who had also triumphed in yesterday’s opening round.

A slight dust up on the opening bend in the first semi coincided with the 2004 Olympic champion’s move to the front, running wide around the outside. The rest of the field of six saw nothing more of the Russian than a clean pair of heels until Borzakovskiy crossed the finish in 1:49.00

Claesson’s move to the front in his semi was not made so early but once ahead the 22-year-old who took the European junior crown back in 2005 was not to be seriously challenged. Yesterday’s preliminary heat had seen Claesson slow down markedly in the final 20 metres and again the Swede was confident enough of his lead to let his foot off the gas as the line was sighted for the last time. Claesson crossed in 1:51.55.

Surprisingly eliminated from this race was Spain’s Miguel Quesada, the silver medallist two years ago, who was fifth today (1:52.12).

In two low key 1500m heats, the first race was taken by Wolfram Müller (3:41.37) and the second victor was Rui Silva (3:42.89), the former World Indoor champion, who took the race in a blanket finish.

The much fancied Spanish trio which includes Arturo Casada the 2007 bronze medallist, made the final with ease.

Sebrle fights back but Pahapill stuns all - Heptathlon

Ukraine’s Aleksiy Kasyanov’s lead in the Heptathlon was sliced apart by a poor performance in the third event, the Shot Put (14.51m). This allowed Estonia’s Mikk Pahapill to close within five points of the lead as his put was nearly a metre further (15.45). The Estonian’s total after three events was 2726 points.

However, the athlete really to plummet out of the medal reckoning was the Netherlands’ Eelco Sintnicolaas who had been third after the Long Jump and whose poor 12.35m found him languishing in 9th (2451). Taking over in third was Roman Sebrle whose 15.14m release gained him 798pts to make a three event total of 2611. Pressing close in fourth was Russia’s Aleksey Drozdov whose 16.57 was the best of the day and left him with 2608 pts.

Then we came to the High Jump, the fourth and final discipline of the first day of the Heptathlon, and what an epic we witnessed.

It was close to being the best Heptathlon High Jump of all-time looking at the eighth best mark of 2.03m. In the Barcelona World Indoor championships in 1995 there were eight athletes over 2.04m but there has been no other meet with more than six over 2.03m. Of course recent World Indoors are a bit hard to compare to this competition as we now only have eight invited athletes competing in each championship.

Tonight ten men were still standing by the time 2.00m had been concluded, and eight of them were to continue to 2.03 or better. For long time leader Kasyanov there was a PB of 2.06, and Italy’s William Frullani also shot-up the leader board with his own career best at the same height (5th; 3441 pts).

But while Kasyanov’s performance moved his points total up to 3585, it was not enough to hold onto his overall competition lead as Pahapill who had been lying in second place improved his PB (2.10 in 2005) to 2.12 to accrue 915pts, giving him a total of 3636 at the end of the day. So the Estonian had the lead for the first time with a 51 point margin over the Ukrainian.

Sebrle, who we now know has a hamstring injury which accounts for his sluggish 60m at the start of today, continued his fight back from that poor beginning with a typically gritty performance which brought him successfully over 2.09 – 887pts, a height also conquered by Drozdov. That left the Czech in third with 3498, some 138 points a drift of gold, but more worryingly for him just three points in front of Drozdov.

NOTE - the Heptathlon concludes tomorrow with the hurdles, the Pole Vault and 1000m. Our coverage of these final events will be published as part of our Day 3, PM session competition report on Sunday evening (8 March).

Chris Turner for the IAAF

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