lunedì 13 agosto 2018

European Athletics Championships in Berlin: Day 5 (11-08-2018)

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I arrive at the race walk course towards 9.10, thinking of finding the race already started (it had to start at 9.05). Instead I find the athletes still warming up and the speaker is silent. I read of a postponement due to a gas leak in the surroundings, then I also meet Baldini who says that it should start at 9.35. Meanwhile, I continue walk around the course in search of a front row seat: I find him in front of a kiosk.


9.35 pass and the race does not start, indeed we see the Trapletti with sweater and backpack. The speaker speaks only to say that he will inform us. There is a postponement to 10.55, at the same time as the men's race: after a while the competition director confirms it, adding "hoping to be punctual". I go for a tour in the shopping center of the square, also to sit down: I go back to 10.30, but already there is no more room again. In the end I find one, in front of the sponging. We see many Italians, but also Spaniards. Near me there is a group of German fans with Dinamo t-shirts (I do not know which one).

The race starts and immediately two separate groups, for men and women, are made: the men's one remains more compact, the women's loses pieces first. At 8th km the first men lap the last women (the ring is 1 km), at 10th lapping between women start, at 15th the first men lap the first women and we do not understand anything anymore. And it was at that moment that the Drahtova creates a gap: Palmisano remains second with Perez of Spain, at a certain point she seems to be able to rally, but it is instead Perez that rallies and takes the lead. Drahtova seems to collapse, but maintains a good margin on Palmisano, who closes third.


The leading group of men is very gradually reduced: when there are about ten people there are still the Italians Stano and Rubino. In the end they remain in 3: two Spaniards and a Russian, with Stano fourth, but that seems cut off. At the arrival of the first I step I switch to following the women's race and then I do not notice that Stano has finished 1 second from the third.

In the evening I do the half-shave in honor of Gimbo Tamberi and arrive at the stadium around 7.35. There is a bit of the queue at the gate, which however runs out in 3-4 minutes. The idea is to get soemthing to eat before the races start, but I find queues at the kiosks (the ones inside the stadium are the only ones that sell both food and drinks, so I choose one of these) and then just in time for the presentation of Tamberi. In passing I take the daily program, which mentions Meucci among the favorites of tomorrow's Marathon, not knowing that he does not run. I must say that it's a bit better than the London one, which was horrible, but the most interesting part is the story of Donald Duck at the ECH. I am in the same sector as yesterday, only two rows ahead, so in a good position for the high jump. The lower deck is almost full, except for one sector, the upper one for the most part: tickets sold are 60,500. I see enough also the landing of discus, while for the women's long jump, on the other side I resign myself to watch it on the screen.Unlike yesterday's women's race, the HJ has a very sharp progression, so much so that it will be enough to clear two heights to come fifth, as in the women's race in Rio. When Tamberi is one of the 3 to clear 2.28 on first, I start to count down the jumps that are missing to a medal: I arrive at 1, with the Belarussian who saves an attempt for 2.31. He clears it, and also very well, so that Tamberi remains fourth, he leaves two attempts for 2.33 and in the first he gives the impression of being able to do it, but he gets out. A German wins, of which I'd better not write the name.

What was supposed to be the most one-sided race of the day, and perhaps of the entire championships, the women's discus, instead offers several emotions. In the first 4 throws Perkovic manages to make only 2 fouls and 2 throws below 60 and finds herself third. TOsakue (who was throwing first), at the second throw finds herself second, then concludes the first 3 throws seventh. The fifth goes very close to the 60 meters marker, so as to make me hope that she places himself temporarily on the podium, instead she is fifth, 61 cm. from the podium. Perkovic will then fix everything by shooting 67 meters on the fifth throw. Mueller and Craft, whom I had met in Amsterdam and found very nice, will get to the podium.

In long jump they stay on low measures: Mohambo takes the lead in the second jump and keeps it until the end, even if in the last 3 jumps before her the competitors arrive all very close, On track, we relied on Crippa in 5000, who at the 'decisive attack is 5th: in the final straight he will be able to rally a position, but no further. The race will mark a victory for Jakob Ingebritsen: simply a monster. But you know, Italy was mainly focused on the two 4X400s. The men fight, but not enough: they come 6th. Maybe they could do something more, but for the medals it was tough. The woman's relay takes place, incredibly, on the same day of the 400 final, so we could also have the advantage of not having finalists. We do not use it: it is precisely the missed finalist, Grenot, to lose ground compared to athletes who had run the final. We close fifth, with many regrets because they won with a time within our reach. This morning when I met Baldini, I had heard him say, "Let's not hide, today is our day." We did not take advantage of it. 

At the exit, given the crowd, for the first time access to the underground are restricted. In the queue there is also a group of the Dutch national team, including the bronze medalist of women's 400, Lisian de Witte (in the last photo below)














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