Day 5’s events consisted of the Women’s Marathon and 5000m Final, as well as the Men’s 800m semi-finals.
Marathon Women Winner Maria Guida Italy Time 2:26.05
At the age of 36, Maria Guida of Italy, labelled this event as her last chance to ‘grab’ a ‘major’ medal. And grab it she did.
After ‘hanging’ off the pace set by Marleen Renders of Belguim in the early stages, she only moved into contention with Sonja Oberem around the 25Km mark. Renders set the pace for the 1st 10K’s and was at one stage almost 30 seconds clear. Chasing was german athlete, Luminta Zaituc with Oberem and Guida another 19seconds back in 3rd and 4th place.
Renders past through 15K in 50:37 and halfway [21K] in 71:55, she however never looked entirely comfortable and when Zaituc joined her she was content to stay the pace. Approaching 25Km Oberem and Guida had made major inroads into the leaders lead and joined the frontrunners, shortly thereafter. 1Hr 25min into the race Renders quit.
With 1:35 on the clock Zaituc and Guida pulled away from Oberem and on 1Hr 38min the Italian made her brave bid for victory when she excellerated away from Ziatuc in convincing fashion. By 30K in 1:43.13, Guida had maintained her effort and had left her pursuers fighting for the remaining medals.
Guida had moved clear, however Oberem and Zaituc became invloved in a national battle which the latter was to win, after quite an intense struggle. By 40K [2:18.22] it seemed nothing could stop the Italian achieving her destiny, not even a water point mishap which had caused her to miss her ‘vital’ intake.
With less than 2K’s to go, the Italian was handed her country’s flag and she proudly tied it round her waist. On crossing the line in 2:26.05 [ a new Championship record ] , she promptly unravelled Italy’s flag and draped it upon her shoulders. Thus signalling Italy’s first and probably only gold of the Championships.
Zaituc clamed silver in 2:26.57 with Oberem claiming her richly deserved bronze in 2:28.44, her 1st major championship medal after being ‘thereabouts’ on numerous occasions.
Results : Women’s Marathon
Maria Guida
1 Maria Guida (Ita) 2hr 26 min 05sec
2 Luminita Zaituc (Ger)2:26:58
3 Sonja Oberem (Ger) 2:28:45
4 Jane Salumae (Est) 2:33:46
5 Rosaria Console (Ita) 2:35:23
6 N Wijenberg (Ned) 2:36:06
7 M Soderstrom (Swe)2:36:13
8 Ulrike Maisch (Ger) 2:36:41
9 A Jensen (Den) 2:37:27
10 FoldingneNagy (Hun) 2:37:33
11 Anna Pichrtova (Cze) 2:37:39
12 G Volpato (Ita) 2:38:15
13 I Timofeyeva (Rus) 2:40:11
14 T Zolotaryova (Rus) 2:41:29
15 D Rabensteiner(Aut) 2:41:39
16 L Vasilevskaya (Rus) 2:44:28
17 Melanie Kraus (Ger) 2:44:56
18 S Johansson (Swe) 2:47:11
19 Fatima Silva (Por) 2:47:28
20 Irina Safarova(Rus) 2:49:21
21 Karin Schon (Swe) 2:49:57
Dnf:
Marleen Renders (Bel)
Nuta Olaru (Rom)
A Ivanova (Rus)
V Delion (Mda)
Disq: C Dallenbach (Fra) 2:39:25
3000m SteepleChase Men Winner Antonio Jiminez Spain Time 8:24.34
Antonio Jiminez
In event where the Spaniards were billed as favourite, Dutch athlete Simon Vroemen made a valiant effort to capture the title and had to settle for silver after been outsprinted by the less fancied [ of the Spanish contingent ] Antonio Jiminez, in a thrilling finish.
Vroemen would have done well to have set a more ‘harsh’ tempo and his loss can be attributed to the lack of pace throughout. With the Dutchman coming into this event with an 8:06 [new European record], a pace of 10secs faster earlier in the event would have not placed him in a position to be out-sprinted by an athlete with a PB [personal best] 13secs slower.
All credit goes to Jiminez who came through on the inside over the last 3 meters, passing countryman Luis Martin over the final 50m, as well. Martin clinched bronze to signal Spain’s dominance of the distance events, so far [ 5000m final day6 ]
Results : Men’s 3000m SteepleChase Final
1 Antonio Jimenez (Spa) 8:24.34
2 Simon Vroemen(Ned) 8:24.45
3 Luis m Martin (Spa) 8:24.72
4 B Tahri (Fra) 8:26.86
5 EliseoMartin (Spa) 8:28.63
6 4 V Slobodenyuk (Ukr) 8:30.16
7 Martin Proll (Aut)8:33.24
8 Rafal Wojcik (Pol) 8:35.41
9 V Le Dauphin (Fra) 8:40.39
10 RomanUsov (Rus) 8:42.62
11 L di Pardo (Ita) 8:46.13
12 G Weidlinger (Aut) 9:00.82
5000m Women Winner Marta Dominguez Spain Time 15:14.76
Watching Marta Dominguez of Spain win the Women’s 5000m was pure pleasure. This athlete is not as ‘graceful’ as her contempories, however she contains the one element necessary to be a champion, ‘grit’. When Sonya O’Sullivan cruised past her, lesser athletes would have accepted the silver, not this athlete. With teeth grimacing and all the signals ‘showing she was finished’, Dominguez ‘dug’ into her final resolve and drove past O’Sullivan with meters of the race left to run.
Credit to O’Sullivan, however disappointed on not clinching a gold [2 silvers] at these Championships, she can go home with her head held high, as she yet again provided the medals for her much loved Emerald Isle [Ireland]. This after only ‘some’ months of giving birth to her 2nd child.
Zadorozhnaya of Russia was rewarded with the bronze medal, deservedly so for an athlete who is always willing to give her best and who often does not ‘reap’ the rewards. Olga Yegorova in finishing 4th, was a shadow of her former self and her devastating finish, so prevelant of the previous season, was nowhere to be seen.
Results : Women’s 5000m Final
Marta Dominguez
1 Marta Dominguez (Spa) 15:14.76
2 S O’Sullivan (Irl) 15:14.85
3 Y Zadorozhnaya (Rus) 15:15.22
4 Olga Yegorova (Rus) 15:16.65
5 Joanne Pavey(Gbr) 15:18.70
6 Mihaela Botezan (Rom) 15:19.12
7 E Abeylegesse (Tur)15:24.41
8 Gunhild Haugen (Nor) 15:30.19
9 Sonja Stolic (Yug) 15:33.42
10 Melanie Schulz (Ger) 15:46.64
11 Gloria Marconi (Ita) 15:47.63
12 9 InˆsMonteiro (Por) 15:55.79
13 S Weissteiner (Ita) 15:58.92
14 Helena Javornik(SlO) 16:06.32
15 Una English (Irl) 16:19.36
16 Krisztina Papp (Hun) 16:20.23
17 Liliya Volkova (Rus) 16:21.21
18 Hayley Yelling (Gbr) 16:26.41
19 M McCambridge (Irl) 17:00.15
Olivera Jevtic (Yug) Dnf
Marina Bastos (Por) Dnf
Maria Protopapa (Gre) Dnf
C Iakovou (Gre) Dns
Below is a ‘capping’ of the Men’s 800m semi finals.
Men’s 800m heats
Yet again all the big guns came through with home favourite, Schumann, Kipketer, Czapiewski easing through, as well as Bucher who had to qualify as fastest finisher.
Kipketer was impressive in securing his place in the final and one can only wonder if he will take the pace earlier in the final race, as his driving finish will most likely take the sting out of the kickers. Bucher seemed slightly ‘out of sorts’ and was fortunate not to be passed over the last few meters.
Schumann was impressive in his domination, however he is yet to win a fast run race, however championship finals ‘hardly’ ever produce fast run affairs. The Polish athlete, Czapiewski, seems content to come from the back of the pack no matter how slow the pace is and is sure to repeat this tactic in the final.
The other ‘happy’ qualifiers for the final was the ‘elated’, Arnoud Okken of Holland and the German giant, René Herms.
Men’s 800m Semi Final 1
1 Nils Schumann (Ger) ER 1:48.01 Q
2 Arnoud Okken (Ned) 1:48.22 Q
3 P Czapiewski (Pol) 1:48.37 Q
4 Joeri Jansen (Bel) 1:48.62
5 James McIlroy(Gbr) 1:49.15
6 Stefan Beumer (Ned) 1:49.60
7 Miguel Quesada (Spa) 1:49.83
8 Florent Lacasse (Fra) 1:50.41
Men’s 800m Semi Final 2
1 Wilson Kipketer (Den) 1:46.56 Q
2 René Herms (Ger) 1:46.77 Q
3 Nicolas Aissat (Fra) 1:46.89 Q
4 André Bucher (Swi) 1:47.08 q
5 Bram Som (Ned) 1:47.20 q
6 Rizak Dirshe (Swe) 1:47.38
7 Antonio Reina (Spa) 1:47.41
8 G Krzosek (Pol) 1:47.82
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