'Supermum' Jo Pavey struck a blow for the over 40 year olds by finally landing a gold medal in Zurich last night at the Euro Athletics Champs, and became the oldest gold medallist at those Games in the process. So often the 'nearly' woman of women's distance running, she has been one of the most consistent runners over the years without winning the gold medal she richly deserved. A bronze in the recent Commonwealth Games over 5km suggested that she was in good shape, which she confirmed with aplomb yesterday in the final of the women's 10km race.
In the race itself, no one in the field seemed too interested in pushing the pace through the early stages, until 3 laps from home when the defending champion, Portugal's Dulce Felix (Pavey's conqueror last time) and her compatriot Moreira hit the front. This prompted a response from Clemence Calvin of France, many people's pre-race favourite, who injected further pace as she took over the lead and pulled a group of five clear with only 1km to go including Pavey. Shortly after the bell this was down to just two as Pavey went for gold and Calvin hung on behind her. Pavey seemed determined that this was her time and kicked again with 200m to go, this time gaining the vital few metres gap which she extended to the finish to win in a modest (and mainly irrelevant) time of 32:22.39.
Calvin took silver and her teammate Traby was third.
The only other final of yesterday that was decided was the men's shot put final, where the heavy favourite, David Storl of Germany delivered with his very first throw of 21.41m. Only he in the field had thrown further this season, and it showed as none of the others could get close to his mark.
Vivas of Spain and Majewski of Poland extended their marks through rounds 2 and 3 but were only good enough for second and third. Zunic threw a personal best in 4th but could not catch the medallists.
Day 1 of the decathlon continued with the high jump and 400m disciplines. Krauchanka leapfrogged the rest to head the standings after the high jump with the best ever jump in a decathlon of 2.22m with Kazmirek and Abele (both of Germany) clearing solid heights to stand 2nd and third at that stage.
The pack shuffled again with the 400m though as Kazmirek stormed through fastest to go into the lead overnight, Krauchanka suffered a little to drop into second overall, with Abele maintaining his 3rd place standing. Sintnicolaas looks handily placed for a medal in 4th, with some good events for him on day 2.
The men's 100m heats also took place yesterday, the results suggesting a likely battle between French and British athletes come the later rounds. Defending champion Lemaitre and last time's silver medallist Vicaut both looked very impressive in winning their heats, Vicaut clearly over his recent hamstring problems in clocking the fastest heat time of 10.06 secs. Not to be outdone, the trio of Brits, Chambers, Dasaolu and Aikines-Aryeetey won their heats as well.
World Champion Christine Ohuruogu of Britain came through strongly to win her heat of the women's 400m in a season's best, although the race looks too close to call for the medallists at this stage. Equally impressive and one to watch in the final could be Zemlyak of the Ukraine, who was quickest in 51.16 secs in winning her heat.
Men's discus qualifying saw most of the expected names make the final with three Germans through, including Robert Harting the defending champion. The man he pushed into 2nd last time, Gerd Kanter also impressed, but Malachowski was less comfortable. He has thrown the Euro best this season, but needed all three throws to clinch qualifying here.
The men's 800m heats saw disappointment for both of the Brits, Rimmer and Osagie as they bowed out.
Favourites Bosse of France and the two Poles, Lewandowski and Kszczot progressed without too much trouble as expected, but also look out for Lopez, English and Bube to figure in the following rounds.
