National Championships round up | 16.06.2012
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| Christophe Lemaitre won the national 4x100m title with his club Aix-les-Bains. |
They will provide a guide to national team selection for the 2012 European Athletics Championships, which will be held in Helsinki from 27 June to 1 July.
Below are some of the highlights of the action around Europe on Friday.
Poland - The 88th national championships are being celebrated in Bielsko-Biala and there were some excellent marks in the throws.
The 2008 Olympic Games shot put gold medallist Tomasz Majewski achieved 21.07m in the shot put with Damian Kusiak second with 19.81m. Former hammer world champion and world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk threw 74.71m.
Lukasz Michalski was the only man over 5.60m in the pole vault and won from Swedish guest Alhaji Jeng, who cleared 5.50m. The 2011 World Championships gold medallist Pawel Wojciechowski didn't start after straining a bicep again while warming up, a problem which first occurred at the Samsung Diamond League meeting in Oslo earlier this month.
The 100m titles went to Dariusz Kuc with 10.20 and Daria Korczynska in 11.39 while the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships long jump silver medallist Tomasz Jaszczuk won the long jump with 8.05m.
Shot putter Pavlina Guba improved her personal best to to 17.47m and Lukasz Parszczynski confirmed his place as the number one Pole over the barriers as he notched up a 3000m steeplechase win in 8:26.55, just holding off Lukasz Oslizlo who ran a personal best of 8:27.64.
There were also some good times in the heats over one lap of the track with the 2006 European Athletics Championships 400m hurdles silver medallist Marek Plawgo running 49.66, Piotr Wiaderek clocked 45.96 in his 400m heat and Tina Matusinska ran 55.92 in the women's 400m hurdles.
Bulgaria - Triple jumper Momchil Karailiev, competing in his home city of Sliven, won with a windy 16.93m. Silvia Danekova clocked the second best time by a Bulgarian in the women's 3000m steeplechase when she won in 9:51.14. Romanian guest Alina Rotaru leapt to a wind-assisted 6.55m to win the the long jump.
France - Triple 2010 European champion Christophe Lemaitre won his first national title at this year's championship in Angers when he provided the second leg for his club Aix-les-Bains' 4x100m relay team and they duly won in 39.73.
The 5000m finals were tactical affairs won by Yohan Durand in 13:51.81 and Christine Bardelle in 15:48.38.
In the women's field events, favourite Melina Robert-Michon prevailed in the discus with a best throw of 60.57m while Eloyse Leseuer got her expected win in the long jump with 6.45m, the relatively modest distances due to problematic wind conditions.
Greece - Kostadinos Douvalidis came close to his national 110m hurdles record when he clocked 13.47 in Athens' Olympic Stadium. The 2011 World Indoor Championships gold medallist Dmitrios Chonrokoukis cleared 2.25m to win before unsuccessfully attempting 2.31m. Javelin thrower Spiridon Lebesis, the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships bronze medallist, was again over 82 metres with 82.25m.
Sprinter Maria Belibasaki got a big personal best when winning the 100m in 11.34 while 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships triple jump medallist Paraskevi Papahristou switched events and won the long jump with as personal best of 6.60m. Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou won the pole vault with 4.50m while Stella Iro-Ledako got a personal best of 4.50m but had more failures and had to settle for second place.
Ukraine - The women's triple jump was the highlight of the final day in Yalta on Friday with Hanna Knyazheva bounding out to a big personal best of 14.71m to move up to third on this year's European rankings. Hanna Demydova retruned home after winning the American collegiate (NCAA) title a week ago and also went into new territory with 14.50m. In a high quality competition, Ruslana Tsihotska was third with a windy 14.36m. Mykola Savolainen won the men´s triple jump with a windy, finishing one centimetre ahead of Evhen Semenenko.
