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Martina is timing his run just right

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With the European Athletics Championships starting in 16 days time, it was an important weekend across the continent with a series of national championships where qualifying for Amsterdam and the Olympic Games in Rio was the target.

Here is the best of the action...

NETHERLANDS

Ask anyone who has competed in a home championships and they will tell you nothing beats winning a gold medal in front of your own supporters. It is a feeling that Churandy Martina may well experience next month.

Four years on from being crowned European 200m champion in Helsinki - where he also helped the Dutch 4x100m relay to glory - he is flying again.

Competing at the Olympic Stadium, the venue for the championships, it was quite a trial run for 31-year-old Martina.

He won the 100m on Friday in 10.11 and then on Sunday soared to victory in the 200m in 20.11, the second best time by a European this summer behind Great Britain’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (19.95). Impressive too in that final was Solomon Bockarie, who broke his personal best by 0.18 with 20.44. He was also second in the 100m in 10.21.

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Dafne Schippers was not competing at the championships and the women’s 100m was won by Naomi Sedney (11.44) with Tessa Van Schagen taking the 200m in a personal best (22.86).

There was also a pb for Themen Kupers in the men’s 800m (1:45.25) while a thrilling women’s 5000m was won by Susan Kuijken (15:37.26) from Jip Vastenburg (15:38.23).

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CZECH REPUBLIC

Barbora Spotakova is both the Olympic and European defending javelin champion and the message to her rivals is now straightforward: she wants gold again.

On Sunday in Tabor, Spotakova’s 66.87m overtook the world lead of 65.68m held by Latvia’s Madara Palameika as the world record-holder stepped up the pressure on all her rivals.

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Then Vitezslav Vesely, the 2012 European javelin champion, won the men’s event with 77.92m in the damp conditions that followed after a big thunderstorm.

After competing at the Janusz Kusocinski Memorial in Szczecin on Saturday, Katerina Safrankova arrived from Poland to break the meeting’s hammer record with 71.06m.

Michaela Hruba cleared 1.93m on her first go to equal her national junior high jump record and in the sprints, Jan Veleba won the men’s 100m (10.28), inside the Amsterdam standard, and junior Tereza Vokalova, 18, also booked her place at the championships as she won the 400m hurdles in a personal best (57.23).

Lukas Melich won his 11th hammer title (74.88m) and Jan Kudlicka took the pole vault (5.55m).

GERMANY

Kassel was the venue and there was a familiar face celebrating victory as Robert Harting won the discus with the sort of form that has made him one of the best of all-time.

Back now after injury, he triumphed with 68.04m in the final round, a throw that was edging towards the world lead of 68.15m held by Poland’s Piotr Malachowski.

His 2016 best entering the championships was 65.97m but Harting, chasing a hat-trick of European titles in Amsterdam while also being the defending Olympic champion, looks a force once again. He beat his younger brother Christoph (66.41m) with Daniel Jasinki in third (65.18m).

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Both javelin competitions were something special.

On Saturday, the first day of these 116th German Championships, world No. 1 Thomas Röhler triumphed with a brilliant 86.81m from Julian Weber (83.79m) and then on Sunday, Christin Hussong, the European under-23 champion, produced a personal best and national under-23 record of 66.41m to defeat world champion Katharina Molitor (62.86m), 2010 European champion Linda Stahl (61.44m) and 2013 world champion Christina Obergföll (59.93m).

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World and European champion Christina Schwanitz delivered a season’s best of 19.49m to win the women’s shot put and double European champion David Storl won the men’s event (20.75m).

Last summer Gina Luckenkemper won the European junior 200m crown in Eskilstuna and now she is the national champion after victory in 22.84 from Lisa Mayer (22.87) and Robin Erewa (23.59), and there was a surprise in the men’s 1500m final, with Timo Benitz (3:40.28) beating Homiyu Tesfaye (3:40.67).

UKRAINE

It was a memorable weekend in Lutsk for 17-year-old heptathlete Alina Shukh, who achieved the best ever mark by a world youth with the senior implements, as she scored 6099 points which is also a world junior leading mark.

On Saturday she equalled her national youth record in the high jump with 1.92m and then on Sunday, she landed best marks for the long jump (6.15m) and javelin (51.52m).

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Natalia Pohrebnyak confirmed her great shape by winning the 200m (22.76) having also taken the 100m and Nataliya Pryshchepa, the European under-23 1500m bronze medallist, was the shock winner of the 800m in a personal best 1:59.08, a fine victory ahead of 2013 European indoor champion Nataliya Lupu (1:59.70) and Olha Lyakhova (2:00.51).

GREECE

Family bonds were the order of the day in Patra.

The women’s 400m saw Irini Vasiliou (52.49) beat her twin sister Anna (52.53) after eye-catching heats in the morning on Saturday.

In those, Irini broke her personal best as she ran 52.12 while Anna earned Amsterdam qualification with her time of 52.50, which was also a pb.

And as Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas was winning the 200m (20.75), his brother Yeoryios was triumphant in the long jump (7.95m).

Elisavet Pesiridou moved to third on the all-time national lists as she won the 100m hurdles final in a superb 12.93.

SLOVENIA/LITHUANIA/SERBIA

Robert Renner is the Slovenian men’s pole vault champion after clearing an impressive 5.60m in Celje and Tina Sutej took the women’s title (4.55); in Palanga, the Lithuanian Championships saw discus glory for Domantas Poska (62.47) and Zinaida Sendriute (60.00m); while in Novi Sad, the Serbian women’s discus was won by Dragana Tomasevic (60.10m).

There are 89 events across Europe this week. For full information, go to http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar



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