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It was a long
day, with the two sessions almost running into each other, and an intense
evening, finally in an almost full stadium. Of course, it was more memorable
for the Germans and the Irish, but we still won a gold, even if it could have
gone even better. I remember what I used to write when we won a gold in 2014 or
2016 (I mean social media posts; this blog did not exist yet); today it has
become ordinary business (winning it, not writing about it).
Let's start
with the evening: I hoped I would manage to see at least part of Group A of the
decathlon javelin, the one with the athletes in the bottom half of standings, including the
Italians, but already on the shuttle I realized I would not make it: I saw the
last throws on the screen just after entering. So I found myself with half an
hour of free time: I took a walk around the kiosks, but did not get anything; I
was not hungry, and there was too much of a queue for drinks. My seat was
almost halfway down the back straight, second tier: I was in an excellent
position for the triple jump and also for the discus, decent for the pole
vault. Near me were Germans, Romanians, Spaniards and (I would discover near
the end) Belgians. Lower down, Poles and Lithuanians. Around the place, the
usual Irish, Swiss and Finns. I would later notice that in the next section
there were three Italian athletes, whom I did not recognize: I know one was
Muraro because I read the accreditation badge. Naturally, in all this I am not
counting the British, who are always in the majority. This, however, can be
noticed from the cheering, but not from the flags: the British have very few of
them; theirs is not among the three most common in the stadium, which are 1)
Ireland, 2) Switzerland, 3) Finland. Finally the stadium was fairly full; the
stand on my side was almost completely full, the bends largely so, only the
upper tier on the finish side was almost empty: in the end they would announce
20,400 people. And finally you could feel the atmosphere, much more than
yesterday as well: I would notice many results from the roar of the crowd; in
the previous days it would have been harder.
It started
with Group B of the decathlon javelin, dominated by Kaul: rarely had I seen a
throw so far beyond the last tape (it was 73.74, while the tape was at 65 metres). Kaul was thus second behind Neugebauer: the German one-two
was by now certain, but with Kaul sixth after the first day, it had already
been clear it would end this way. We then came to the key event for us: the
women's triple jump. The men's 200 heats were scheduled first, but the triple
jump started early (20:02 instead of 20:15). I could see the take-off very
well, but I could not really get much of an idea of the distance. Derkach
jumped second, after Masson's 14.15: a beautiful jump, one that was immediately
clearly much longer: 14.53. She ended the first round 30 cm in front: the only
one who had given me the impression she could trouble her was the Turkish
athlete Danismaz, who had fouled. Apart from Saraceni, because of what she had
done in qualifications (I had even picked her as the winner in the predictor), but
her first jump had been really poor. I had barely had time to think that when,
in the second round, the Bulgarian Nacheva jumped 14.40, and in the third the
Belgian Guisse 14.37. Saraceni had a clear foul on her second jump and, on the
third, one that seemed a little better than the first, enough to give me some
hope that it might reach the 14.04 needed for eighth place (at that point);
instead it was only 13.48. In the fourth round Guisse moved up to 14.46, but I
remained convinced that Derkach could do more, and indeed she jumped 14.60. I
thought it was now done, and in fact it ended that way. We are at 6 medals, 3
of them gold: until 8 years ago this would have seemed an excellent result for
an entire European Championships, especially if only stadia events were
counted. Now we have reached it with 3 days still to go, and it almost does not
move us.
In the
meantime, in the 200 semifinals, the Italians had made an excellent impression:
Desalu had dominated, Dozza had stayed with the group and finished fourth with
a personal best, Longobardi had come third by thousandths, but had still
advanced as a non automatic-qualifier. This was what I believed from watching the races:
I would later discover that Dozza and Longobardi had been swapped; the
finalist was Dozza.
The men's
discus and women's pole vault also began: with three field events and the track
races, it was hard to follow everything. Naturally, as long as the triple jump
was still going on, I followed the other field events distractedly. In the
discus, coming back from the bathroom, I saw the measurement of Ceh's throw at
70.83, a championship record. I missed it, however, when he improved again to
72.51. The pole vault, curiously not placed at the start of the programme,
began at 4.30 with no one eliminated; at 4.45 there were 2 eliminations, at
4.60 6 remained, at 4.70 there were 3 plus one athlete who had saved an
attempt. While following the field events, I also missed the fall at the last
water jump in the women's 3000 steeplechase, won by my former fellow resident (of
Frankfurt) Krause.
After the
decathlon 1500, which sealed the German one-two, Dester's 11th place and
Nonino's last place, came the other race in which we had hopes, the men's 800.
Those hopes increased when I read that Burgin was not starting. This time
Pernici stayed at the back of the group, so much so that I feared he had
nothing left after two hard rounds. Instead, on the final straight he came
back, and for a moment I fooled myself into thinking he might reach the podium.
Instead he seemed to be fourth, and at first the scoreboard also listed him as
such; then he turned out to be fifth, with the podium 6/100 away. As expected,
the Irish celebrated with English. The track programme closed with the women's
200: Asher-Smith reached the straight in the lead and for a while held off
Hunt's comeback, but in the end she was passed by her and by Adereke of Ireland.
The programme, however, was not over: the pole vault still had three athletes in the competition. They were at 4.80, after Hentala and Moser had cleared 4.75 and Bonvin had saved two attempts. Moser cleared it at the first attempt; Hentala and Bonvin saved attempts, all of which they failed. Moser was therefore champion with two attempts left at 4.85, which she decided to take anyway. I saw the first, narrowly missed, then I left. From the crowd's reaction I understood that she had also missed the third. I stopped to get a Cornish pastry, which was really good, then I queued for the shuttle, where I heard first the German anthem, then the Italian one for the medal ceremonies. I met two Swedes and asked them an old curiosity of mine: how Duplantis gets on with Swedish. They told me well; he always gives interviews in Swedish.
There had been
a morning session earlier, which I had watched from the third-to-last row high
above the second bend. I had tried to sit a few rows lower, but then the
rightful owner arrived. I was in a good position for pole vault, the 200
bend and the steeplechase water jump, but a terrible one for discus and
especially high jump, on the opposite side. It was even worse with the
scoreboards: I could see the back of one, and the others were so far away that
I struggled to read them even with binoculars.
After the
decathlon 110 hurdles, of which I had missed the first heat, the women's high
jump qualifying began. This time the progression was almost too slow: 1.75 with
no misses, 1.80 with only two misses in total, first eliminations at 1.84;
after 1.88 there were still 21 in the competition, including Mahuchikh, who had
not yet jumped, 16 of them with no misses, including the three Italians. They
got to the qualifying height of 1.91, and 15 cleared it, including Pieroni and
Tavernini.
On the track
there had been the men's 200 and 3000 steeplechase heats, with all the Italians
going through. Then came the women's 800 semifinals: in the first I saw Werro's
fall, but I was certainly not in a position to judge whether she deserved to be
reinstated or not; in the second Coiro firmly held third place behind
Hodgkinson and Bol. The track programme had ended with the women's 400
semifinals, of an insane level: 5 under 50 seconds, and Polinari, with 50.62 (a
time faster than those with which Grenot had won two titles in the previous
decade), was not even the first of those eliminated.
Once the track
events were over, the decathlon pole vault remained. I went to get something to
eat and realized that almost everyone left had migrated to the covered stands,
given the great heat. I decided to do the same: after all, I had never seen
anyone, not even in the evening, check that people went to their assigned
seats. As is now customary, the groups were staggered: one began the pole vault
while the other was still contesting the discus. Unlike usual, however, this
time they started with the weaker group, which included Dester. The Italian was
one of the last to enter the competition, at 4.50: he cleared it, then returned
at 4.70, but withdrew after one miss. For a while the two groups remained at
the same heights, because the second started at 4.60, which was exactly where
the first was at that moment. Then the second slowed down; it was not clear
what was happening: Neugebauer, who had failed three times at 4.80, was allowed
to repeat an attempt, and this time he made it. After seeing Nonino clear 4.90,
I decided to leave. I also left the javelin qualifying behind, after one round
of the second group and with both Italians out: I would later discover that
Frattini had improved and had qualified.
From tomorrow
I will watch the races on TV: I'm depressed by the idea of seeing what broadcasters choose.
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