Predictions for the Euro Cup Championship

[white lightning]

Let's concentrate on the sprints and the jumps.We have these events to pick a winner.The 100,200 and 400 meters,110 hurdles,400 hurdles,triple jump,long jump & the high jump.

I will start with just my picks for the 100 right now.I will take Matic Osovnikar for the gold,Dariusz Kuc for the silver,and A.Yepishin for the bronze.I'm really hoping for some incredibly fast times and new personal bests.I think that Matic is going to run in the 10.10 to 10.15 range in one of the heats or the finals.

 

[albinosprint]

I think Kuc is going to blow everyone's mind and win the 100. if the conditions are right I believe he will PR. and I give Osonikar 2nd. I would love to see a white sweep, but I know that one black with slip in there.

for the 200, I would like to see any of these guy win it. they all have a chance at the finale and to win.
GRE GOÚSIS Anastásios 20.54/20.44 SB/PR
POL URBAS Marcin 20.55/19.98
NED DOUGLAS Caimin 20.55/20.48
BEL BEYENS Kristof 20.62/20.45
CZE VOJTÃÂ￾K Jirí 20.62/20.62
BUL ILINOV Yordan 20.65/20.65
there is a young 200 guy from germany Daniel Schnekting I think he is only 18 or 19 and he has a PR of 20.68. I don't think he is in the form to win, but I would like to see him PR


the 400 I would like to see the kid from Italy win it. LICCIARDELLO, he is only 20 and can really be a world contender in a few more years.

long jump goes like this (white sweep!)
1. ITA HOWE Andrew 8.41/8.41 SB/PR
2. GBR RUTHERFORD Greg 8.26/8.26
3. UKR LUKASHEVYCH Oleksiy 8.17/8.27

 

[albinosprint]

my bad! Howe from Italy is unfortunately not all white, he is half black, so I take back the white sweep in the long jump. myself being Italian, I forget that there is a small element of negros in Italy. its a dam shame!
Mussolini is probably rolling over in his grave these days!

 

[freedom1]

I'm figuring gold medals for sure for Holm in the HJ, Olsson in the triple, Olijar in the 110 hurdles and Iakovakis in the 400 hurdles.

Tim Benjamin has a lot of upside potential in the 400 as his PB is 44.56 and his SB is 45.38. I'm hoping he'll have a breakthrough race.

I figure the black Italian kid Howe will win the long jump (SB 27.6) with Rutherford getting the silver (SB 27.1). Of course, I'm hoping for an upset.

I'm not sure about Kuc in the 100 as he's young and is still learning to deal with the pressure. A breakthrough race for him would be great, one in which he would medal and get a new PB. Following Kuc's progress is exciting because it's obvious he has a lot of upside potential.

I don't think we're looking too strong the 200 this season. I hope one of our guys can come alive and get a medal.

 

[jacknyc]

Howe is from Los Angeles and moved to Italy as a child.
I hope you guys are right with these predictions.
I am a little more cautious myself - I agree with Freedom1. I don't think Kuc will win the 100, although I would love it if he did. He is young and inconsistent at this point. Not sure how he will handle being in a championship setting with heats to run in order to qualify for the final.
We'll find out if he is one to really watch.
Benjamin has a solid shot at the 400, and I think the hurdles are good bets. Howe should take the LJ, but the Swedes should win the HJ and TJ.
Can't wait to see what happens.

 

[albinosprint]

remember that Kuc won the Polish championship, that has got it be allot of pressure. I think he can handle the Euro's!

 

[white lightning]

I hope Johan Wismann can get to the 200 finals.He has the potential to medal.Tim Benjamin should make the finals but I don't think he will win at the moment.I hope I'm wrong.Holm in the high jump,Olson is the triple jump,I will go with the greek in the long jump to pull the upset with Rutherford 2nd.I think that Howe will struggle.I would love to see Dariusz Kuc win and run a time close to 10.10!Time will tell.It's too bad Craig Pickering couldn't have been in better form or he could have been representing England.I'm still staying with my pic of Matic Osovnikar to win the 100 though.The 100 heats start on Monday.I can't wait.

 

[devans]

Tim Benjamin is coming back from Injury and is yet to get below 45 secs. I don't think he has enough training behind him to take gold this time.

 

[freedom1]

In an interesting development Daniel Dabrowski of Poland had the fastest qualifying time (45.58) in the 400.

 

[jacknyc]

Based on the heats, Kuc and Osovnikar look like they will be battling for a bronze medal. Both the semis and finals are tomorrow, so they'll have to run very fast twice in one afternoon. I hope they're up to it.

 

[white lightning]

Both races are within an hour and a half of each other.It will take great endurance and tremendous recovery to run fast times.I think Kuc and Pognon have to be two of the favorites due to their age and also the fact that they are not as big.It's easier for a skinny guy to recover.I will take Kuc to win,Pognon 2nd,and Osovnikar in 3rd.I don't think Chambers will get a medal.He doesn't deserve one anyway after being busted for roids just two years ago.

 

[white lightning]

Here is a great picture of Dariuc Kuc in his heat where he beat the juiced up Dwain Chambers on England.You can tell how young he is.He looks like the local paper boy!What a future he should have.He does have some descent size legs though and that is why he can flat out run!Imagine him in a couple of years !

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060807/ids_photos_s p/r2111632282.jpg

 

[SteveB]

Wow!! check out the 100m Semifinals. Some great times. Andrey made a statement.

Semifinal 1 (2)Wind:+1.5
Rank Bib Athlete Nation Result
1 841 Yepishin, AndreyRUS 10.12 Q PB
2 373 Pognon, RonaldFRA 10.14 Q
3 729 Kuc, DariuszPOL 10.23 Q
4 396 Chambers, DwainGBR 10.25 Q
5 958 Dovhal, AnatoliyUKR 10.27SB
6 717 Chyla, LukaszPOL 10.30SB
7 265 Rodriguez, ÃÂ￾ngel DavidESP 10.33
8 863 Zumer, JanSLO 10.43

Semifinal 2 (2)Wind:+1.0
Rank Bib Athlete Nation Result
1 759 Obikwelu, FrancisPOR 10.19 Q
2 859 Osovnikar, MaticSLO 10.23 Q SB
3 412 Lewis-Francis, MarkGBR 10.30 Q
4 469 Ostwald, RonnyGER 10.40 Q
5 722 Jedrusinski, MarcinPOL 10.43
6 360 Kankarafou, OudereFRA 10.43
7 150 Wijmeersch, ErikBEL 10.47
8 230 Beitia, OrkatzESP 10.52

 

[white lightning]

What a incredible race for Andrey.I hope he didn't totally exhaust himself for the final.I think D.Kuc and M.Osovnikar might have been a little smarter saving some energy for the final which is coming up anytime now.They is very little time to recover.I have to go to work so I won't know who wins until tonight.Good luck to all of these guys.I would love to see a clean sweep!

 

[white is right]

I saw Yep's time and I am pleasantly suprised, a decent breakthrough...

 

[freedom1]

Oh man!! Yepishin is hot. I hope this is a result of him peaking at the right time and that he catches a flyer in the final.

 

[SteveB]

Yepishin gets silver and Osovnikar gets bronze with some good times (both setting National Records). Kuc also runs a good time. Great job!!

FinalWind:+1.3
Rank Bib Athlete Nation Result
1 759 Obikwelu, FrancisPOR 9.99 CR EL
2 841 Yepishin, AndreyRUS 10.10 NR
3 859 Osovnikar, MaticSLO 10.14 NR
4 373 Pognon, RonaldFRA 10.16
5 412 Lewis-Francis, MarkGBR 10.16 SB
6 729 Kuc, DariuszPOL 10.21
7 396 Chambers, DwainGBR 10.24
8 469 Ostwald, RonnyGER 10.38

 

[jaxvid]

Depressing. One black guy in the bunch and he wins. Also runs a sub 10. WTF can't our guys get some good juice?

 

[jacknyc]

This is actually a very good result.
Obikwelu was the strong favorite coming into the meet, and Pognon the second favorite. We got a break through performance from Yepishin and a very good performance from Osovnikar.
So, our guys actually did better than expected by most experts.

 

[albinosprint]

Obikwelu should move back to Nigeria!

 

[Guest]

Depressing. One black guy in the bunch and he wins. Also runs a sub 10.

There were 3 black runners. Anyway that is a good heat. All runners at world class speed. It gets annoying hearing about how white runners are not even competitive. As if the fastest white runner is slower than the slowest black runner.

There are still strange themes in track and field such as why is there no real British or French sprinter here? It's clear they are being discouraged from track. They are probably told to leave running to the blacks at an early age.

 

[jacknyc]

Obikwelu should move back to Nigeria!

I agree. I don't believe that established athletes should be able to switch nationalities for the sole purpose of furthering their athletic career.
He has no real Portuguese affiliation, and if he hadn't changed nationalities, then the Russian would have been the European champion.

 

[jacknyc]

Depressing. One black guy in the bunch and he wins. Also runs a sub 10.

There were 3 black runners. Anyway that is a good heat. All runners at world class speed. It gets annoying hearing about how white runners are not even competitive. As if the fastest white runner is slower than the slowest black runner.

There are still strange themes in track and field such as why is there no real British or French sprinter here? It's clear they are being discouraged from track. They are probably told to leave running to the blacks at an early age.

I don't think there is anybody on the French team who isn't from Africa or whose parents aren't from Africa. Their team is less white than the USA's team.

 

[white is right]

Depressing. One black guy in the bunch and he wins. Also runs a sub 10.

There were 3 black runners. Anyway that is a good heat. All runners at world class speed. It gets annoying hearing about how white runners are not even competitive. As if the fastest white runner is slower than the slowest black runner.

There are still strange themes in track and field such as why is there no real British or French sprinter here? It's clear they are being discouraged from track. They are probably told to leave running to the blacks at an early age.

There are still the occasional british white sprinters. Benjamin is one and they have 200 metre runners occasional. As for France for them to have a white athlete he has to be competing in a white event like the pole vault or a throwing event.

 

[white lightning]

What a day.I can live with the silver for now.Sometimes it's all about the silver lining.lol.It's incredibly difficult to run a sub 10 in the 100.For two guys to break through and both medal with new personal bests is a great start in my book!By the way,there were 4 blacks in the 100 meters final.Oblique,Pognon,MLF and Chambers.So we had 4 white sprinters and 2 of them ended up on the medal stand while 3 of the 4 black sprinters didn't!How do you like those apples?

Andrey Yepishin finally lives up to his potential.He was the 2nd fastest man in the world over 60 meters at the World Indoor Champs a half year ago!Now he is the 2nd fastest man in all of Europe.That is saying something along with two new personal bests in one day within 2 hours of each other.Simply incredible.I only wish he was a little younger.At 26,he should still have 3 to 5 solid years left.A huge congratulations to him.This will motivate many young Russian Sprinters!A new national record finally after 19 years!Way to go Andrey!

Matic Osovnikar also ran a new personal best with a 10.14 for the bronze.I predicted he would be in the range and I'm very happy for him.Matic won the first ever sprint medal for Slovenia.What an accomplishment and he will probably run a couple of sub 10's before it is all said and done.

Dariusz Kuc can hold his head high.Another 10.21 clocking!This kid is for real.The next few years will be very interesting indeed.

We didn't get the gold medal but 2 out of 3 is still awesome.Congrats to all of the great sprinters for showing themselves and their countries proud!The future looks bright indeed.

Edited by: white lightning