Led by Rebekka Haase, a triple gold medallist at the last European Athletics U23 Championships in Tallinn, Germany’s women sprinters produced one of the nation's greatest results to win gold in the 4x100m at the 3rd IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas on Sunday night.
Haase anchored them home on an historic evening, to set them up for something special again at this summer’s World Championships in London, as they won in 42.84 from Jamaica (42.95) and China (43.11).
The quartet of Alexandra Burghardt, Lisa Mayer, Tatjana Pinto and Haase showed strength and slick baton changing as they achieved a significant result for European relay in general, with the country also winning silver in the 4x200m.
Burghardt and Haase were both part of the team which won gold at those European U23 Championships in 2015, where the latter also took the individual 100m and 200m titles.
And the race at the T Robinson Stadium in Nassau was a good result for Europe as the Netherlands (43.17) in fourth and France (43.90) in fifth also confirmed their World Championship qualification.
Poland ended the weekend as Europe’s leading nation, fourth in the table with 23 points as the USA won with 60, after a series of good performances: silver in the women’s 4x400m, bronze in the men’s 4x800m, and fourth in both the women’s 4x800m and mixed 4x400m.
[PHOTO src='1281112' size='mediumLandscape' align='right']
Augusto is a champion
It was one of the year’s busiest marathon weekends across Europe and Sunday was a brilliant day for Portugal’s Jessica Augusto.
Her initial target in Hamburg had been to break the Portuguese national marathon record of 2:23:29 which Rosa Mota has held since 1985 and though conditions went against that, there was still delight for Augusto as she won in fine style in 2:25:30 to achieve her first triumph over 26.2 miles.
“When I saw the weather today, I decided it was not a day for concentrating on breaking the national record. It was tough because of the weather and I am delighted to be a marathon champion at last,” she said.
Third at halfway behind Ethiopian Megertu Ifa and Kenyan Viola Kibiwott, Augusto produced a brilliant performance, timing her move well in the second part of the race to seize the lead at 30km.
Augusto has now run under 2:26 on six occasions as she triumphed from Ifa in 2:29:47 and Kibiwott in 2:30:33.
The Belgrade Marathon was celebrating its 30th staging on Saturday morning and what a day it was for Olivera Jevtic.
In a time of 2:38:03, Jevtic, 39, a five-times Olympian, won this title for the third time in a career which has brought multiple medals on the European scene including marathon silver at the Gothenburg 2006 European Athletics Championships.
Guerra leads for Europe as Griffiths surprises
Spain’s Javier Guerra flew the flag in the men’s race at the London Marathon on Sunday as he was the first European home in 2:10:55, the second best time of his career.
In a race won by Kenyan Daniel Wanjiru (2:05:48) ahead of Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele (2:05:57), Guerra, who has a personal best of 2:09:33 from London in 2015, finished in ninth, two spots ahead of his Spanish teammate Ayad Lamdassem (2:12:30).
And a new European star was born in 13th as Swansea Harrier Josh Griffiths, who started as part of the mass race, came through in 2:14:49 to qualify for Britain’s team for this summer’s World Championships back in the capital.
“The goal for me was to try and run the Welsh Commonwealth Games qualifying time of 2:16:00. It never crossed my mind that I would be running in the World Championships in the summer,” said Griffiths, 23, speaking to the BBC.
As Kenyan Mary Keitany broke the women’s-only world record in 2:17:01, Lithuania’s Diana Lobacevske was the leading European in 12th in a personal best time of 2:28:48.
In Warsaw, Belarusian Nastassia Ivanova won the women’s race in 2:28:43 from Poland’s Izabela Trzaskalska (2:29:55) and Kenya’s Viola Yator (2:30:03) while in the men’s race, as Felix Kimutai (2:10:34) and Alex Saekwo (2:12:01) made it a Kenyan one-two, home favourite Artur Kozlowski (2:12:38) was third.
There was a home win, too, in Padova as Italy’s Fatna Maraoui took the women’s race in 2:32:52.
Toth warming up well
Slovakian Matej Toth is preparing for another big year, as he looks to defend his world 50km walking crown in London and he achieved a fine win at home in Borsky Mikulas on Saturday.
Competing at the 48th Zahoracka Dvadsiatka, Toth, the Olympic and world 50km champion, won the 20km in 1:24:38 as Maria Czakova triumphed in the women’s event in 1:40:38.
At the Belarussian Race Walking Cup in Gomel, Aliaksandr Liakhovich produced a personal best of 1:21:12 in the men’s race and Nadezhda Dorozhuk a time of 1:34:41 in the women’s for home wins.
Tugsuz's new best
In Antalya, Eda Tugsuz, 20, maintained her fine progression by breaking her Turkish national javelin record in great fashion with 64.30m in the first round, beating the mark of 60.98m she had set in Bydgoszcz last summer when she won World under-20 bronze.
And in Salinas, Sweden’s Daniel Stahl delivered the second best discus of his career, with 68.36m, to move to second in the world this year.
There are 42 events across Europe this week. For full information, go to http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar.