Gold medallist Gregory Sedoc of the Netherlands (L) celebrates with fellow countryman Marcel vand der Westen following the Men's 60 Metres Hurdles Final in Birmingham (© Getty Images)
Two men’s titles were decided tonight at opening evening session of the 29th European Indoor Championships, with the Netherlands doubly delighted as they secured gold and silver in the 60m Hurdles, while Slovak Mikulas Konopka stunned his opponents with a marvellous, if totally unexpected, series of 21m puts in the Shot.
‘Double Dutch’ is an expression usually used to denote confused speech or a lack of clarity in information but this evening in both the semi-final and final stages of the men’s 60m Hurdles, it was definitively clear that the Netherlands had the best duo of sprint hurdlers at these championships.
In the semis, it had been the Dutch duo of Marcel van der Westen (7.62) and Gregory Sedoc (7.63) in that order who had been the fastest, respectively equalling and improving their PBs in qualifying for the final. Spain’s Jackson Quiñónez one of the two fastest of the opening round was also impressive (7.63). Britain’s Andy Turner who like the Spanish runner had clocked 7.60 to get to the semi-final stage was sixth fastest overall (7.66) when securing his lane in the final.
Surprisingly, Latvia’s European outdoor champion Stanislav Olijar bowed out with what seemed very little fight in the first semi-final heat.
When it came to the final Turner with a PB of 7.55 was of course the home crowd’s best bet for a medal but the hosts could boast two men in the line-up, and it was this second string British hurdler Allan Scott who caused the first and only false start.
With the field settled again and away for a second time we enjoyed the spectacle of a near blanket finish, with Sedoc in lane three (7.63, equalling his new PB) this time heading Van der Westen (7.64 – lane 6). Sedoc had the advantage of being pushed all the way to gold by the impressive running of Quiñónez, who was directly outside him in lane 4. Aside the Belgians, the Spaniard had been the standout of the two earlier qualifying rounds, and deservedly took the bronze (7.65).
A semi-finalist in last year’s World Indoor championships, 25-year-old Sedoc is a student of banking and insurance, and having started with a personal best of 7.64 at these championships can be pleased that his training has paid dividends this winter. Now he must urgently attend to his 110m form as with a best of only 13.51 for the outdoor event, he remains short of the top grade at European let alone global level.
“This is so ridiculous. Unbelievable. I never thought I would be able to become European champion…Getting a one-two in the final has never happened to the Netherlands before and its fantastic,” said Sedoc.
Konopka dominates
Mikulas Konopka, 28, has had a varied pedigree where past European Indoor Championships are concerned, and produced a fifth place finish in Madrid two years ago. But the Slovakian, who was an Olympic finalist in 2004 and achieved the same honour at the World Championships in 2005 - did not qualify for the final at last summer’s outdoor European Championships - has progressed far since then.
Tonight the only word that can adequately describe his tremendous one-day rise in standard is ‘meteoric’, as he blasted to the gold by improving his personal best from 20.55m to 21.57m, which was a national record and the best by a European this winter. With only a foul in the third round to blemish his score card, the two-time U23 European title winner rocketed-out puts of 21.32m, 21.57, x, 21.36, 21.14, 21.40 to demolish any hopes that 2005 winner Joachim Olsen, the Olympic bronze medallist, might have had for a successful defence.
The Dane was so overawed by the Slovak’s demonstration of power that until the third round he couldn’t even register a valid effort (20.43m). Thankfully for Olsen that was enough to move him into bronze, and he consolidated that position with 20.55 on his next. Ahead in silver was Belarussia’s Pavel Lyzhyn, who though only tenth in Gothenburg last August, produced a personal best of 20.82m (20.53 previous PB) as the runner-up tonight.
“I have been working hard over the winter to improve my technique,” said Konopka. “I knew if I got this right than I could throw distances like this. I wanted to go out and throw far to out pressure on the others.” Mission accomplished Konopka!
For the defending champion his only words were ones of astonishment. “I was surprised at the big distances thrown early on by the others,” said Olsen, “but what can you do?”
Okken looks ok
Medals are still to be decided in the men’s 800m whose first round was fought out this evening. Respectability in terms of time was only approached by the Netherlands’ Arnoud Okken who won the third heat (1:49.15), just holding off the attack of Spaniard Luis Alberto Marco (1:49.28). This was by far the quality offering of this opening round, as David McCarthy of Ireland fought a hard battle with Marco down the back straight in pursuit of Okken, and that brought him home in 1:49.60, for third place and the third fastest time of the entire preliminary round. Of the other heats, the winners were Sweden’s Mattias Claesson (1:50.08), James Brewer (1:50.40), and Miguel Quesada of Spain (1:55.43).
Gillick determined and still the favourite
In the 400m semi-finals, arms were knocked together as Britain’s Robert Tobin running on the inside of the final curve tried to hold off David Gillick of Ireland who made a powerful final drive coming off the bend to secure the second heat win in 46.16. Tobin’s own run was fine (46.19) but the title seems to be between Gillick and heat one winner Bastian Swillims, the German champion, who looked a confident racing package and was the fastest of all (45.92). Sweden’s 200m specialist Johan Wissman should also not be discounted (46.25).
Chris Turner for the IAAF