Antonietta Di Martino’s success, which was covered at the end of part 1 of this retrospective, meant that she was the oldest women to win a gold medal in the women’s high jump in 31 editions of the European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Part II of II.
She was far from the only ‘golden oldie’ to stand on top of the podium in Paris.
Great Britain’s Helen Clitheroe, who turned 37 in January, became the second oldest woman to win a gold medal at the Championships with only Russia’s Yekaterina Podkopayeva, who won the 1992 and 1994 1500m titles at the ages of 39 and 41, succeeding her for maturity.
Clitheroe, who went to the French capital as the marginal favourite for the 3000m as she lead the European rankings for the year, just edged out Russia’s Olesya Syreva by three-hundredths of a second after a thrilling duel over the laps lap, crossing the line in 8:56.66.
It was a fantastic triumph for the popular British team captain who had been to 35 major championships in her career but who had only won one previous medal of significance, a bronze over 1500m at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
'During the race I kept thinking, 'It's slow, will I be able to kick?'. I just kept pushing. Only when I crossed line did I realise I'd won,' said the stunned Clitheroe.
Also raising the flag for the older generation was the 32-year-old Portuguese sprinter Francis Obikwelu, who became the oldest winner of the men’s 60m.
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| Portugal's Francis Obikwelu set a new national record 6.53 to register an unexpected victory in the men's 60m final. |
Obikwelu, who holds the European 100m record with 9.86 from when he finished second at the 2004 Olympics Games, turned back the clock to cause one of the biggest upsets of the Championships and win in a national record and European-leading time of 6.53.
“To be honest with you, this wasn’t really in my plans but my coach said ‘come on, let’s run in Paris.’ I didn’t run in any international meets, just in Portugal. The standard for coming here was 6.70 and I had run 6.68. The others were running much faster. My only plan coming here was to enjoy myself, get to the final and then I said ‘anything can happen’ and that’s what did happen,” joked the ever-smiling 2006 European Athlete of The Year.
Obikwelu also gave the French crowd one of its rare disappointments over the three days by defeating local hero, Christophe Lemaitre.
The 20-year-old Frenchman, who was voted last year’s European Athlete of The Year on the strength of his three gold medals at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, ran a European-leading time of 6.55 in his semi-final but couldn’t match the blistering start of Obikwelu and finished third, with Great Britain’s 2009 champion Dwain Chambers having to settle for second on this occasion.
The men’s 60m was undeniably close, with just one-hundredth separating Obikwelu and Chambers, but the women’s 60m hurdles had people holding their for breath while waiting for a verdict until they were almost blue in the face.
Only a couple of minutes after Germany’s Carolin Nytra and Great Britain’s Tiffany Ofili had crossed the line were the officials able to separate them by one-thousandth-of-a-second: the official photo finish times being given as 7.793 for Nytra and 7.794 for Ofili, the smallest ever winning margin in a track event at a European Athletics Indoor Championships.
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| France's Antonietta Nana Djimou Ida set the tone of the championships with a new national record of 4732 points in the pentathlon on the first day of the championships. |
'At the start, I saw the shot putters (Ralf Bartels and David Storl, who had won the gold and silver medals a short while before) with our national flag in the finish area, I said to myself: ‘This is a sign for me.' commented Nytra, with her winning time rounded up on the official results to 7.80.
Ofili was also given the time of 7.80, a national record, and a similar feat achieved by Norway’s Christina Vukicevic, who clocked 7.83 for third, the pair producing the best times ever recorded for the 60m hurdles silver and bronze medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Among the 27 national records set or equalled at the Championships was Antonietta Nana Djimou Ida’s French heptathlon record of 4723 points, which earned her the gold medal and which was also one of five world leading marks achieved during the Championships.
Nana Djimou Ida had an inspired day. She started with a 60m hurdles personal best of 8.11, the fastest ever seen during a women’s pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and continued to reel off high quality performances.
Her shot put of 14.81m was a personal best by more than half-a-metre, however she was pushed all the way to the line by Lithuania’s Austra Skujyte, the 2004 Olympic Games silver medallist returning to multi-events this winter after a two year break concentrating on the shot put, and the winner was in doubt until the very end.
Skujyte actually held the lead going into the final event, the 800m and to win she had to stay within six seconds of her French rival, who is only slightly faster over the distance.
However, Skujyte could manage only 2:26.54 while Nana Djimou Ida dug deep and crossed the line in 2:18.99 and the Lithuanian had to settle for second in 4706 points, only a mere 17 points in arrears.
Another enthralling event with a narrow margin of victory, although this time it was the favourite who prevailed, was the women’s 60m which saw the Ukraine pair of Olesya Povh and Mariya Ryemyen take the gold and silver medals.
The training partners and flatmates from Zaporizhzhya dominated the first two rounds, with Povh equalling her European-leading mark of 7.13 in her semi-final.
It was a similar story in the final, with Povh again running 7.13 and Ryemyen second on 7.15.
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| Germany's Sebastian Bayer retained his European indoor long jump title with a leap of 8.16m in Paris. |
Among those athletes who came to Paris already in possession of a European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medal was Great Britain’s Mo Farah, who defended the 3000m title he won two years ago in Torino after a fast and furious final lap when the 2010 European Athletics Championships 5000m and 10,000m gold medallist just had enough of an extra gear to hold off Azerbaijan’s Hayle Ibrahimov.
Farah stopped the clock in 7:53:00 with Ibrahimov second in 7:53.32, although the latter did get his country’s first medal at the Championships.
German long jumper Sebastian Bayer was the star of Torino when he leapt out to a European indoor record of 8.71m and although he didn’t get close to that sort of distance this time, his winning mark being 8.16m, he provided a heart-warming story after almost two years of injuries.
“It has been so frustrating at times because I have not been able to show people what I was capable of outdoors since Torino. This shows people that what I did in Torino was no fluke. I never thought about giving up, I’m too young and I have always known that I have talent, but I have to admit that there have been some dark days since the summer of 2009,” reflected Bayer.
It is impossible to cover all the 26 events in Paris in detail, and sadly it has been necessary to even omit mentioning some event s entirely for reasons of space, but European Athletics hopes that this retrospective gives a flavour of the thrilling three days of competition in the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy and the fantastic atmosphere created by an enthusiastic and appreciative crowd.
It was not only the spectators inside the arena who demonstrably enjoyed the event.
Provisional television viewing figures suggest some that were excellent audiences for the Championships in many countries across Europe.
With a plethora of great results by French athletes, the host broadcaster France Télévisions attracted average audiences of 1.2 million (an 11.8 per cent market share) and 1.3 million (11.1 per cent) for the afternoon/evening sessions on Saturday and Sunday.
An impressive British team performance, saw the public-service broadcaster BBC registering average audiences of up to 1.53 million and 1.2 million for its own live coverage on the two last days.
Smaller nations and markets also posted hugely encouraging numbers.
Dutch broadcaster NED 1 saw an average of 724,000 viewers tune in to live coverage on Saturday (a 25.10 per cent market share) and 650,000 (19.70 percent) on Sunday.
An average audience of 357,000 views in the Czech Republic watched live coverage of Saturday’s events on CT4, with the market share reaching 20.81 percent as Denisa Rosolová won the women’s 400m final in a personal best of 51.73.