Following yesterday’s first half of the European Athletics Team Championships review from 2013, here is the second half of interesting facts that took place over the weekend of 22-23 June.
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MENKOV, Aleksandr that is, found himself facing the Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford in his own backyard in Gateshead, but that had no effect on the Russian whose 8.36m was a championship record as the Briton finished third with 8.02m. It was some year for Menkov, who won the European Athletics Indoor title, the IAAF world title and the Diamond Race.
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Next year, when the 2014 Championships will be held in Braunschweig (Super League), Tallinn (First League), Riga (Second League) and Tbilisi (Third League)
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OBERGFOLL. The championships have been staged four times now and only one person has a perfect record. Step forward Christina Obergföll, Germany’s javelin superstar who maintained her unbeaten run in the event with a winning throw of 62.64m. She had been tied on three victories each with Great Britain’s Dai Greene but he finished second in the 400m hurdles as the day opened. In August, Obergföll then won her first global championship title with gold at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.
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PERRI SHAKES-DRAYTON. The hurdles is her main event but this time she moved to the flat 400m in Gateshead and brought her country maximum points as she won in 50.50 - a performance which was the fastest in Europe at that stage of the year.
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QUARTETS. Three out of the four relays in Gateshead produced European leading times - with Great Britain’s men quartets winning both their events, the 4x100m in 38.39 and the 4x400m in 3:05.37, and Ukraine’s women taking the 4x100m in 42.62.
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RUSSIA. And just how bright the future looks for their athletes who proved they have a crop of outstanding young stars. The nation won 10 events in Gateshead and with the exception of Yekaterina Sharmina, in the 1500m, and Olga Golovkina, in the 5000m, who were both 26, the other eight had a common theme: they were 23 years old or under.
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SAME AGAIN. In Banska Bystrica, there could have been reason to look twice at the outcomes of the women’s 3000m and 5000m which produced exactly the same result - with Azerbaijan’s Tsehynesh Tsenga winning both races, Montenegro’s Sladjana Perunovic finishing second in both and Iceland’s Arndi Hafthorsdottir being third both times.
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TELEVISION. The championships proved a great success with fans as the total television audience figures for the Super League in Gateshead was 21 million. As European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz said: 'We are very happy with these broadcast figures for Gateshead 2013. It was an excellent event that garnered a strong television audience as well as a sell-out crowd at the stadium.”
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UKRAINE. They may not have known it before the start in Gateshead but their country had the honour of having the man who would become the European Athlete of the Year in high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko. He needed only 2.28m to take the title on countback from France’s Mickael Hanany but later in the summer he would win the world title and twice clear 2.41m to put him joint-third on the all-time rankings.
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VICAUT. Jimmy Vicaut, of France, gave an indication of what lied ahead of him in the summer of 2013 when he won the 100m in Gateshead. It was all part of his gradual process which saw him break 10 seconds for the first time with 9.95 in Paris and then achieve it twice more with 9.99 in Monaco and 9.98 in Zurich.
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WINNING STREAK. The men and women of Third League hosts Slovakia treated their fans to a superb weekend when they had 12 individual winners on their way to promotion.
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X-RATED weather. Boy, how did it rain on the Sunday morning in Gateshead ahead of the second day of action. The weather became so bad that two events had to be moved to the complex's indoor training area - the men’s pole vault and women’s high jump.
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YOCHAI HALEVI. The Israeli triple jumper maintained his status as one of his country's leading athletes with victory in Kaunas with 16.73m.
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ZUZANA. The Czech Republic’s Zuzana Hejnova was only a few weeks into her brilliant season of domination in the 400m hurdles when she arrived in Dublin for the championships’ First League. To gain some extra speed work, she opted for the 400m and easily won that, too, as she triumphed by 0.74 in 51.90. And, just for the record, her country finished first in her main event, as teammate Denisa Rosolova won the 400m hurdles in 55.34.