2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland

[mastermulti]

In my honest opinion, Lykourgos Tsakonas would have won the gold or silver medal today in the 200 finals. What a damn shame.

I was happy to see Danny Talbot take the bronze but it's too bad Borlee faded to finish 4th. I was hoping those two would take the silver and the bronze. Martina ran good but it would have been a better race if Tsakonas was there. The weather sure has been awful for alot of the euro champs. Either rainy, windy, cold or all of the above.

On another note, the French 4 x 100 Relay team won gold. The Italians took the silver and the Germans took the bronze medal.

you must have had an apparition WL. Relay finals yet to be run

 

[white lightning]

Too funny mastermulti and your right. I've been tired due to trying to catch as much of the Euro Champs twice a day and a serious lack of sleep. They probably have to be the favorite at the moment though if I had to guess.

I'm really looking forward to the long jump finals and the 110 hurdles semis and finals. Can we please get some nice weather? Is that too much to ask. Haha.

Shubenov has to be heavily favored in the 110 high hurdles. I would love to see S. Bayer win the long jump with a huge jump. He has already won the European Indoor Champs in the long jump and it would be nice to see him add the outdoor title.

 

[mastermulti]

Too funny mastermulti and your right. I've been tired due to trying to catch as much of the Euro Champs twice a day and a serious lack of sleep. They probably have to be the favorite at the moment though if I had to guess.


I'm really looking forward to the long jump finals and the 110 hurdles semis and finals. Can we please get some nice weather? Is that too much to ask. Haha.

Shubenov has to be heavily favored in the 110 high hurdles. I would love to see S. Bayer win the long jump with a huge jump. He has already won the European Indoor Champs in the long jump and it would be nice to see him add the outdoor title.

so you were hallucinating a positive thought. Fair enough. Good to see Christophe's buddy Pessonneaux in the team although they will miss Mbandjock. Unfortunately your hallucination can't prove true since the Italians aren't fielding a team. Disappointing!

With an 8.34 qualification and only one jump you'd have to think he's back jumping well. Couple of Aussie boys could him him some "hurry up" in a month or so.
Not a white athlete I know, but Allyson Felix sensational in 21.69 - I hope she can take down the roided FloJO's record but probably not likely.
More likely Pearson can grab the manufactured Donkova's WR though

 

[Rebajlo]

Merlene Ottey turned out for Slovenia in the 4 x 100 relay...at the age of 52!

No PEDs here...

 

[jacknyc]

Sergey Shubenkov ran 13.09 in the semi-finals into a negative 1.1 wind!
That's a national record and European leading time.
He should be in the finals in the Olympics.
Let's see what he does in the finals. Hope the wind will be behind him then.

 

[LoLy]

renaud lavillenie of France 5.97m (first try) wins gold at pole vault.

Does anyone know why Kevin Borlee didn't run the 400m? I just watched the 4x400m final, and he just fly all over the track.

 

[white lightning]

What a great day of competition. Shubenkov won the gold although it was a closer race than I expected. He ran a splendid time of 13.15 so this kid is really in the form of his life. That semi finals heat that he won could have been the first white hurdler to go sub 13 in decades but the wind didn't allow it. It's only a matter of time. As jacknyc said, he will be in the finals of the olympics. I also want to add that Artur Noga of Poland won the bronze in a new national record time of 13.27! Their is a revival of white hurdlers. Very exciting.

Glad to see Bayer take the gold. Now he will need to step his game up in London if he is to make the medal stand. My prediction is still that Mitch Watts of Australia to take the gold. Let's hope for some good weather next month.

Germany looked really good in the 4 x 100 Relay Finals taking the silver ahead of France who grabbed the bronze.

 

[white is right]

Merlene Ottey turned out for Slovenia in the 4 x 100 relay...at the age of 52!

No PEDs here...

She is frightening, not so much on her looks but she could literally be a test case on the dangers of abusing PED's for 20 years plus...

 

[white is right]

Sergey Shubenkov ran 13.09 in the semi-finals into a negative 1.1 wind!
That's a national record and European leading time.
He should be in the finals in the Olympics.
Let's see what he does in the finals. Hope the wind will be behind him then.

With times like that he could be in the hunt for a medal in London and probably has the inside track for a final appearance. Plus this boards favorite PED abuser didn't make team USA...

 

[white lightning]

I'm so glad that David Oliver didn't make the team. He must have not cycled his uuuhhh.....flinstone vitamins......right! Lol.

To put this 13.09 performance into perspective, only 14 men have ever run below 13 seconds. It's alot more rare than running a sub
10 or sub 20. He would have already broken 13 seconds if not for the wind. Shubenkov is now officially a world class hurdler. What I really like is that he is so young so there is still ample room for imporvement in his speed and tecnique still. Noga was very good as well. Now we need Pozzi, Clark and a few others to give Shubenkov some more company arond that magical 13 second mark. Pozzi should be able to get there within a year or two. Maybe sooner. Who knows? I can't wait for London.

Now if we can only get some Borzov type sprinters from Russia again. Their mens sprinters are improving but they still have a long ways to go to even be respectable. I wonder what time Shubenkov would run the 100 in? I would guess around the 10.20's probably.

 

[white lightning]

http://www.european-athletics.org/e...2012/11251-bayer-is-a-cut-above-the-rest.html

 

[white lightning]

http://www.european-athletics.org/e...6-shubenkov-adds-senior-to-under-23-gold.html

 

[Keyser Soze]

Has anyone else here have any additional info, pics or video evidence as to why he was disqualified? Thanks guys.

He stepped on the internal line and so he was disqualified. What a pity since he was non pushing 100% in the semifinals :embarassed:

 

[Zeus]

I rewatched the 200 semifinal with Lykourgos Tsakonas winning it easily despite coasting the last 20 meters or so.

Just finished listening the 5 minutes sports news during my lunch break and it had a small part of Tsakonas's trainer and he stated that Lykourgos during the last 6 months has been so impressive in training that he's afraid to mention times, so the media and people won't put extra pressure and stress on Lykourgos.........He also stated that he believes that Lykourgos would have won the gold in the final and the journalist kept asking and asking about the times Lykourgos is doing during training and the trainer was avoiding to answer and closed the interview by saying "Kenteris's national record of 19.85 won't last for many more years, I can promise you that"

Time will tell........I expect Tsakonas to shock the world at the Olympics, mark my words, the 20.47 he did in the semis was a scary time and if you see closely the race, the man is stopping running for almost 20m in the end, especially the last 7-8m he's "chilling" ala Bolt.

 

[elispeedster]

Just finished listening the 5 minutes sports news during my lunch break and it had a small part of Tsakonas's trainer and he stated that Lykourgos during the last 6 months has been so impressive in training that he's afraid to mention times, so the media and people won't put extra pressure and stress on Lykourgos.........He also stated that he believes that Lykourgos would have won the gold in the final and the journalist kept asking and asking about the times Lykourgos is doing during training and the trainer was avoiding to answer and closed the interview by saying "Kenteris's national record of 19.85 won't last for many more years, I can promise you that"

Time will tell........I expect Tsakonas to shock the world at the Olympics, mark my words, the 20.47 he did in the semis was a scary time and if you see closely the race, the man is stopping running for almost 20m in the end, especially the last 7-8m he's "chilling" ala Bolt.

Is there a video out that shows the semifinal with him slowing down? Where can I find it?

 

[white lightning]

Here is an article about Rytis Sakalauskas. It goes on to explain that he was hurt and never intended on running. It's a bad injury but he had to line up so he would still be eligible for the olympics. Here is to a speedy recovery. I sure hope this doesn't set him back like the injury to Christian Blum where he fell and has never been the same level of sprinter since. Good luck Rytis.


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