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December 2009
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2008 in Review: Men's middle distance |
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23.12.2008 |
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Russian Yuriy
Borzakovskiy continues to rule the
roost in 800m in Europe.
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Yuriy
Borzakovskiy (RUS) was once again clearly the best 800m runner in Europe with his 1:42.79 European leading time, almost two
seconds faster than anybody else in the continent.
In Beijing the Russian
however failed to reach the final among with four other Europeans who raced in
the semi finals.
In the 1500m distance French man Mehdi Baala still continued to
rule the event in Europe. 30-year-old, who has
won the last two European titles (2002 and 2006) in 1500m, was stellar in Beijing, but just missed
the final kick and finished fourth in the Olympic final.
Baala also topped the
European rankings with his 3:32.00 season leading mark coming in Rome in July.
The fact
that there were no new entries to the European Top-30 all time list in neither
of these two events does tell something about the state of middle distance
running in Europe at the moment.
Borzakovskiy
was again the main man in Europe for the 800m
distance, but he didn't race much internationally during the 2008 season.
The
27-year-old Russian was unbeaten prior to Beijing,
but raced in only one major competition in Monaco,
his last competition before Beijing.
Borza did win that Monaco
race with an extremely convincing 1:42.79 season's best, European leading and
second best time in the world this season, but his form just wasn't enough in Beijing.
With so many
favourites in trouble during the Olympic semi finals, Borzakovskiy too fell
victim of the pace in the slowest semifinal finishing in third place with the
first two advancing to the final and the time being not enough.
The next two
fastest Europeans Michael Rimmer (GBR - 1:44.68) and Robert Lathouwes (NED -
1:44.75) set their personal bests behind Borzakovskiy in that same Monaco race
in July. Both also competed at the Olympics with Rimmer reaching the semi finals
and Lathouwers missing just the semis narrowly.
30-year-old
Mehdi Baala competed another signature season of aiming for just one thing, the
Olympic gold. The Frenchman only competed four times before the Olympics in
1500m winning the European Cup Super League in Annecy
and Metropole meeting in Lille
in June. His European leading and seventh best time in the world this season,
3:32.00 came with a fourth place finish in Rome in July, his last meeting
before the Olympics.
In Beijing everything seemed to go well until the final
where in an extremely rough final sprint Baala just couldn't reach a medal
losing the bronze by only 0.05s to Nick Willis (NZL) to finish fourth in
3:34.21. A strong European participation in the final was completed by Juan
Carlos Higuero (ESP - 5th), Andy Baddeley (GBR - 9th) and
Christian Obrist (ITA - 12th). Higuero also was the second fastest
in Europe with his 3:32.57 clocking in Rome.
Baddeley notably was the fastest in the world in One Mile distance this season
winning the Golden Mile in Oslo
clocking 3:49.38 in June.
European Athletics Stats
Head to head between Europe's
best:
800m
Michael
Rimmer GBR - Robert Lathouwers NED 2-0
Robert
Lathouwers NED - Pawel Czapiewski POL 1-1
Pawel
Czapiewski POL - Michael Rimmer GBR 2-1
1500m
Mehdi Baala
FRA - Juan Carlos Higuero ESP 2-1
Mehdi Baala
FRA - Artur Casado ESP 4-0
Juan Carlos
Higuero ESP - Artur Casado ESP 5-3
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