European Athletics Championships in Birmingham - Day 3 (12-08-2026)

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This time, even for the morning session, there is already a bit of a queue at the entrance and my block is almost full, although others remain empty (and some of the empty ones were among the cheapest, so it does not seem that the main issue is the price): overall, for a morning session, there is a crowd. It is a combined events day, so the crowd is different from the other days: there are many Estonians and Germans, two Dutch people next to me, then the usual Swiss and Irish fans, probably the only ones not here mainly for the decathlon. I am in the seventh row, toward the beginning of the back straight: I can see the decathlon long jump very well, even though I cannot see the measuring board of the runway closest to the stand, the one for group B, and I cannot really make out the distances on the other one either.

 

 This time I arrive a little before the start: I can therefore follow the three heats of the heptathlon 100 metres, with Dester finishing sixth, ahead of all the favourites. The women’s discus qualifying also begins, and I am in an excellent position for that too. In the first group there are Meline Robert-Michon, 47, and Liliana Cà, almost 40, and both will qualify. The second group will be of a slightly lower standard, with 5 qualifiers compared with 7, and unfortunately Daisy Osakue will contribute to lowering it: first throw into the cage, second outside the sector (and it would have been short anyway), the third looks well on its way, so much so that I think “finally”, but it lands at 57.41. And to think that 58.48 would have been enough to pass.

 

Then comes the decathlon long jump. As I said, I can see the run-up and take-off very well, and also the athletes coming over to speak with their coaches. There are football-style chants for Neugebauer, who opens with 7.61 and improves to 7.82 on his third jump. Skotheim responds with 7.80. For two jumps Nonino is the bettewr of the Italians with 6.91, then Dester manages 7.12 (I should mention that there is always a  sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker).

 

Meanwhile on the track there are the heats first of the women’s 400 metres, then of the women’s 200 metres. All the Italian women go through: in the 400, Bonora impresses, third in 51.27 in the fastest heat (in any case, only the time counted); in the 200, Kaddari runs her first convincing race of the season, winning in 23.14. In both cases, I wait to read the result to be sure it was them. The 800 metres semi-finals follow: in the second one Pernici leads from the front, but is caught in the closing stages. I think he has finished third, but then I see he is fifth and start swearing because I think he is out despite 1:43.84. Only when they show the summary do I understand that there were only two semi-finals, so he is in the final.

 

After the 800 metres the stadium begins to empty. I start thinking about moving toward the end of the straight to follow the decathlon shot put better, and when the discus also finishes I do so. The men’s 400 metres hurdles semi-finals are still to come too, but it makes little difference watching them from one side or the other. The stronger group is the one farther from my stand and it is not very easy to see even from here. At the same time as the finish of one semi-final, I glimpse Neugebauer taking the championship best performance away from Daley Thompson with 17.31. Meanwhile, in the 400 metres hurdles, Sibilio barely hangs on to second place; third would not have been enough, and Warholm controls the race.

In the evening my seat is on the opposite side compared with the other days: it takes me much longer to reach it and I see an area I had never seen before. I am just past the finish line: at a major championship I have only been this close in Doha. So I can see very well, besides the 110 metres hurdles, the decathlon high jump, while for the hammer I can see the trajectory well, but not so much the throw itself, because the circle is hidden by the high jump areas. The stand around the finish area is full, the opposite one less so, but there are still more people than on the other days. In my row there are Dutch and Belgian spectators, farther ahead Germans and Poles, and many Finns around, as they have two favourites in the hammer. The eclipse cannot be seen (and I had even bought the special glasses), it is cloudy, but there is still a strange light.

 

I arrive when only the heptathlon high jump is under way, and it has not been going on for long: group A is at 1.93, group B, with the Italians, at 1.87. Dester looks very secure up to 1.96, clears 1.99 with a little difficulty, but still on his first attempt, then stops there, but he is still second in the group and eighth overall. Nonino does what he has to do and stops at 1.93. I then watch the 110 metres hurdles semi-finals, with the incredible elimination of Asjer Martinez (and also of the other Spaniard), but above all I see Fantini’s hammer land close to the second marker tape which, as I had imagined, was at 75 metres: 74.97, five metres more than the second best. At the end of the first round she was still leading by a metre and a half, then Kosonen overtook her. I stayed until halfway through the third round, with the other favourite, Tervo, definitely eliminated.

 

 

My evening of athletics ended early: I was not feeling very well (I was struggling to breathe) and decided to be checked over. Everything worked out for the best, they were extremely kind, and I am better now. They also took me through areas reserved for the athletes, and I saw some of them up close, including Neugebauer. I also learned that there is a room reserved for combined events athletes.