European Cup Preview

While American superstars will be in Stanford striving in their national championships to secure a spot in the US team for the World Championships in Paris, Europe’s interest will focus on the 2003 SPAR European Cup which will take place at the recently renovated Luigi Ridolfi stadium in Florence, Italy next 21 and 22 June.

The Capital of Tuscany, known worldwide for its artists and painters, will play host to some 400 athletes, including 12 European champions from Munich and 4 World champions from Edmonton, who will aim not only at team but individual success.

Teams from France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Russia, Poland (men), Romania (women) and the newly promoted teams from Greece and Spain will line up in what promises to be a very hot weekend. The temperatures in Florence reached 39 degrees last weekend, and are likely to rise even more in the next few days.

Weather conditions will therefore play their role in Florence and may even affect the athletes, as was the case at last year’s edition of the European Cup in Annecy, France, where Jonathan Edwards was trying to protect himself from the 40+ degrees under an official’s umbrella between each attempt.

MEN

Edwards and his 17.19m win in the Triple Jump led Great Britain to an overall men’s victory (111 points) ahead of Germany (107) and France (105). There will be no Edwards this year and the British team will be hard pressed to defend their title.

Former World Junior champion Mark Lewis-Francis, victorious at the national 100m selection race which took place at the IAAF Super Grand Prix in Ostrava last week, will represent Great Britain’s best chance of an individual win. British sprinters have won 12 European Cup 100m races in the last 13 years and MLF, a surprise winner in Bremen in 2001, certainly doesn’t want to break this glorious tradition.

To win the men’ s European Cup last year Britons swept all the sprint races and more importantly won both relays.

In a dramatic finish of the 4x400m relay, traditionally the last event of the Cup, Frenchman Mark Raquil gradually lost his lead with both Daniel Caines (GBR) and Bastian Swillims (GER) overtaking him. Caines crossed the line in 3:00.57, with Germany second in 3:00.80, and France a dejected third in 3:00.92. Not only had France lost the relay but the second qualifying spot for the World Cup in Madrid!

While there will be no World Cup on the athletes’ horizon this year, Raquil who improved his French national record to 44.80 when winning the Seville Grand Prix earlier this month, will be eager to take his revenge be it in the individual event or the relay.

With the World Championships in Paris just a couple of months away, the French team will also use the Florence European Cup as a barometer of its current shape.

A surprise winner of last year’s High Jump with a new personal best of 2.30m, Gregory Gabella will once again try to fly high for his team. A recent 2.27m clearance has boosted the 23-year-old Frenchman’s confidence. A fourth place finisher at Birmingham’s World Indoor 60m Hurdles, 20-year-old Ladji Doucoure will take on his older international rivals in Florence’s 110m Hurdles, while Romain Mesnil (PoleV), Florent Lacasse (800m) and Bouabdellah Tahri (1500m) should be France’s other big names.

Poland’s men’s team which surprisingly took the Cup in 2001 will have no Plawgo, Januszewski, Mackowiak or Czapiewski - all injured - and will also have to deal with Olympic Hammer Throw champion Szymon Ziolkowski’s decision to withdraw following his defeat in Warsaw last week.

Germany will count on it’s strong men, Karsten Kobs (Hammer) and Boris Henry (Javelin) on it’s runners Ingo Schultz (400m) and Dieter Baumann (5000m), and the former World Junior Pole Vault champion Lars Borgeling.

It will be interesting to see how Greece and Spain deal with their return to the Super League. The Spaniards will present a team with very good potential headed by long jumper Yago Lamela whose 8.44m leap is the third best in the world. David Canal (400m), Antonio Reina (800m), Jesus Espana (5000m), Antonio Jimenez (3000m Steeplechase), and Manuel Martinez (Shot Put) should all be within medal contention.

On the other hand, there is only one name which really strikes among the representatives of Greece: that of Kostantinos Kederis (200m), the only man to hold the Olympic, World and European titles at the same time.

Local supporters will be delighted if Fabrizio Mori did manage to take part in the 400m Hurdles, as the Tuscany-born athlete has been struggling with a left Achilles tendon injury for the past few months.

“I want to compete in Florence, it’s my land and I want to do well for my people,” said Mori.

Mori’s race in Florence will mark a record 12th appearance in the European Cup for the former World champion whose acquisition of points will be crucial for Italy not to finish among the last two teams and therefore be relegated to the first League.

WOMEN

Fiona May will be even closer to home than Mori next weekend, as the British born athlete lives and trains with husband former pole vaulter Gianni Iapichino in Florence. Returning from maternity leave, May has a best performance of 6.55m this season and will lead an Italian team which also counts on national Triple Jump record holder Magdelin Martinez to notch up a victory in Florence.

In the women’s competition, Russia’s domination has become more of a leitmotiv than a surprise, the Eastern European ladies having won the last six editions. Last year not only did they win the European Cup with a 19.5 point lead on the runner-up team Germany (with France in third), but the Russians also lifted the IAAF World Cup in Madrid, beating the teams of Europe, Americas and United States.

The highlight of last year’s European Cup in Annecy was undoubtedly Tatyana Kotova’s outstanding 7.42m leap, the best Long Jump in the world since 1994! Beside Kotova’s win, Russia totalled an amazing 10 victories - out of 20 events - and most impressively all the field events with the exception of the High Jump - in which Marina Kuptsova (4th) seemed to suffer from a total loss of form – went to a Russian representative.

If Kotova has decided to skip the European Cup this year in order to concentrate on her preparation for the World Championships, Kuptsova has confirmed her attendance and will be very keen to erase her disappointment from last year.

The women’s Pole Vault has more or less become a Russian affair in the recent months with Svetlana Feofanova, Tatiana Polnova and Yelena Isinbayeva jumping at their best. Russian team leaders have opted for Polnova, the oldest of the three, to defend their chances in the European Cup.

Russian athletes will also have an extra motivation as Florence may well guarantee them a ticket for the World Championships in Paris. “Those who finish first or second will be selected for Paris,” said Valeriy Kulichenko head coach of the Russian team.

World Hammer Throw leader Manuela Montebrun will lead a very determined French team for whom the 2003 season matters most than any other. Montebrun threw yet another National record of 74.50m at the Villeneuve d’Ascq meeting last Sunday and is determined to throw the hammer even further. In Florence she will have to deal with the opposition of two of the best throwers in the world, Mihaela Melinte (ROM) and Olga Kuzenkova (RUS).

“Competing for the team is going to give me the motivation needed to do even better,” said Montebrun on Sunday night.

European 100m record holder Christine Arron will make her return to the European Cup in the best possible conditions. A winner of the Cup’s 100m in 1999 and the 200m in 1997, Arron clocked a season’s best of 11.09 last Sunday building up on a promising early winter season just a few months after the birth of her first son.

“I hope to go under 11 seconds at the European Cup next week,” said Arron last Sunday.

European 200m champion Muriel Hurtis, Heptathlete world leader Eunice Barber (Long Jump), and former Olympic 100m Hurdles medallist Patricia Girard are other athletes France can count on.

Joe Pavey’s name stands out among the British athletes. Pavey recently clocked the world leading time of 8:41.89 at 3000m but will line up in the 5000m in Florence. She will aim at going a step higher than last year when she finished second to Russia’s Olga Yegorova.

US based Natasha Danvers will run both Hurdles events for Great Britain, while Jade Johnson should represent their best chances for a field event success. Florence will also mark the return of Olympic medallist Katharine Merry to the highest level of competition. Merry who has been suffering from one injury after another since her Sydney race, will be a member of the 4x400m relay squad.

Romania’s leader will as usual be Ionela Tirlea competing in the 200m, 400m Hurdles and 4x400m relay. Winner of last year’s group B of the First League European Cup, Spain will count on Olympic silver medallist Glory Alozie (100m and 100m hurdles), World indoor medallist Mayte Martinez (800m) and former World junior champion Concepcion Montaner (Long Jump).

Greece’s leading athletes will be Olympic and World medallist Ekaterini Thanou in the 100m and European indoor Long Jump champion Niki Xanthou, but both their respective events will probably be the strongest competitions of the weekend. Thanou will line up against Alozie, Arron, Maduaka (GBR) and Kislova (RUS), while Xanthou’s opponent will include Montaner, Barber, Johnson, May and Galkina (RUS).

Teams in contention

Men
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Italy
Poland
Russia
Spain

Women
France
Germany
Great Britain
Greece
Italy
Romania
Russia
Spain.

IAAF