Over the next three days European Athletics is offering a day by day review of the top European stories from the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow. Today we start off with Days One and Two.
Day One, Saturday August 10, A glorious opening for European athletes
The women's marathon took place in the morning with Italy's Valeria Straneo surprisingly everyone but herself to take silver. She reached these heights at the age of 37, having had her spleen removed in 2010 and she produced the performance of a lifetime to finish second.
It was only as the Luzhniki Stadium came into sight that Kenya's Edna Kiplagat, the defending champion, broke away from Straneo to retain the crown as she won in 2:25:44. The Italian was not that far behind - just 14 seconds - as she took silver from Japan's Kayoko Fukushi in 2:27:45.
Later in the afternoon, Mo Farah, who had won the Olympic 10,000m gold in London 12 months earlier, made up for his disappointment of narrowly missing gold in 2011 in Daegu by taking the title in front Ethiopia's Ibrahim Jeilan who had beaten him in South Korea. The Briton won in 27:21.71 from Jeilan in 27:22.24 with Kenyan Paul Tanui third in 27:22.61.
From the moment the gun fired, Farah was in control. At times he moved to the front of the field in the early stages just to let his rivals know he was there, he would then drop back as he pleased. It never looked like he would be beaten, and he wasn’t.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
I would never have thought this could happen a few years ago
Valeria Straneo
Day Two, Sunday August 11, Russia celebrates its first gold medal
The home fans did not have to wait long to celebrate Russia’s first gold medal. With a brilliant final 5km, Aleksandr Ivanov won the 20km walk with a performance which took him into the record books. At 20, he is the youngest athlete to win a male walking event at the World Championships. He did it in style, too, beating the Olympic champion, Ivanov finished with a personal best of 1:20.58 from China’s Chen Ding who was second in 1:21.09 with Spain’s Miguel Angel Lopez third in 1:21.21.
Croatia’s Sandra Perkovic has become the dominant force in the women’s discus and now she has the world title to go with her Olympic gold from London and her two successive European crowns from 2010 and 2012. She won this time in the second round with a throw of 67.99m with delight for France’s Melina Robert-Michon whose final round effort of 66.28m not only confirmed her place in the silver medal position but also broke the national record. Cuba’s Yarelys Barrios was third with 64.96m.
There was further European success on this second day in Moscow as Ivana Spanovic broke Serbia’s national long jump record as she won bronze on countback. Her leap of 6.82m came in the final round and took her from eighth place on to the podium.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
The beginning was particularly tough but I kept telling myself keep going, you have to keep going.
Aleksandr Ivanov