Giorgio Reineri in Budapest
The first three gold medals of the 17th European Championships in Athletics were won on a day marked by heat and humidity by Ilya Markov of Russia (20km walk), Ucrainian Oleksandr Bagach (shot put) and Portugal’s Antonio Pinto in the 10,000m.
No-one could have wished for a better start to the proceedings, be it for the quality of the performances or the choice of victors: Markov was a silver medallist in Atlanta and the acceleration she showed in the last fifty metres here in Budapest, as she overtook Latvia’s Aigars Fadejevs was impressive to say the least. Just as impressive the firepower hidden in the powerful right arm of Oleksandr Bagach: the shot left his hand like a cannonball to land 21m17 away in the last attempt of a series of 6 massive throws: 20m02, 20m26, 20m99, 20m98 and 21m10 his previous marks.
Bagach is a shot putter of the old school; a follower of the style invented by Parry O’Brien nearly half a century ago. His greatest weapons are the speed of his arm and his massive build. But Bagach is not a lucky thrower: bronze medallist in Atlanta and in the world championships in Stuttgart in 1993, he finally won the ulimate accolade in Athens last year, only to have it stripped from him two days later - the time needed to complete testing of his urine sample - and the sweet fragrance of victory, laced with a cheque for $60,000, turned to bitter delusion. The anti-doping test found traces of Ephedrine and, though this is not considered to be an offence of the most serious nature, it bore the penalty of disqualification and gold and dollars disappeared beneath the Grecian sun.
It looked for a moment as though Bagach was going to have another problem after his European win here: his calf - the support leg - was bound with a weighted bandage, anchoring it down to the circle and raising the doubts of the judges. Should the binding be considered illegal? Bagach explained that he had to use this system to correct a problem of balance when pushing and releasing the shot deriving from an old fracture. However, with no protest from silver medallist Oliver-Sven Buder, the judges decided that there was no case to answer and Bagach could walk off with his well-earned gold - but without any dollars: the European championships do not offer medallists any cash awards.
Antonio Pinto is, without any doubt, the strongest 10,000m runner in Europe. He won his title when he kicked between the sixth and seventh kilometres, covering those 1000 metres in 2:32.00. Only Germany’s Franke and Baumann were able to resist his attack. But there resistance was not to last further than the eighth kilometre, covered in 2:40.00: pinto left the Germans in his wake and went on to win in 27:48.62 - the second 5000m covered in 13:35. The victory of the Portuguese - who is also a marathon runner to be reckoned with - took us back many years, to the days of glory of another great long distance specialist, Carlo Lopes. Lopes, like Pinto, was Portuguese: the long distance running traditions of that nation withstand.
