Diniz adds to France's golden haul
Source: Agencies |
July 31, 2010, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
YOHANN Diniz overcame a fall late in the race to retain his European 50-kilometer walk title yesterday and give France its third gold medal of the championships in Barcelona.
Diniz jumped for joy after winning in a time of three hours, 40 minutes, 37 seconds, the best in Europe this year. Poland's Grzegorz Sudol was second, 1:47 behind and Russian Sergey Bakulin third.
Olympic champion Alex Schwazer, who was second in Tuesday's 20km walk, pulled out towards the end of the race holding his right hamstring.
The 32-year-old Diniz took the lead on the first lap of the 1km circuit on Barcelona's streets, on a muggy, overcast morning, and remained untroubled by anyone else for the rest of the race.
He blew kisses to the spectators after crossing the line before jumping up and pumping his arms in the air.
"The strategy was to concentrate on myself, not on the others because I had been looking at the others in the past two years and I did not race well," Diniz, who retired after 33km at the Beijing Olympics and finished a disappointing 12th at the world championships last year, told French TV.
France, which also boasts gold medalists in sprinter Christophe Lemaitre and decathlete Romain Barras, are favorites to take the men's steeplechase title after Olympic runner-up Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad was fastest in qualifying in 8:27.32, while European record holder Bouabdellah Tahri won his heat.
British world champion Jessica Ennis took the early lead in the heptathlon with an assured performance in the 100 hurdles. She was ahead in her heat at the second barrier and recorded the fastest time of 12.95 for 1,132 points.
Norway's world, Olympic and European champion Andreas Thorkildsen had a scare in javelin qualifying with two no throws before managing 78.82 meters on his final attempt to go through to today's final with the sixth-best distance.
Finland's Tero Pitkamaki, second to Thorkildsen in Gothenburg four years ago, comfortably surpassed the automatic qualifying distance of 81 meters with 83.15 on his second throw.
World high jump champion Blanka Vlasic cleared the qualifying height of 1.92 on her first attempt to book a place in tomorrow's final.
Belgium's defending champion Tia Hellebaut, who returned to competition this month after the birth of her daughter in 2009, made the height on her final jump.
On Thursday, Britain's Phillips Idowu produced the performance of a lifetime to defy the form book and beat favorite Teddy Tamgho of France in the triple jump final.
Germany enjoyed their first golds of the championship thanks to a surprise javelin triumph from Linda Stahl and a victory by Verena Sailer in the women's 100 meters.
World champion Idowu had been laid low by a virus this year and was struggling to produce his best but it all came right at the Olympic stadium when on his fourth jump the 31-year-old set a personal best of 17.81 meters to a huge roar from the crowd.
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