European under23 championships in
Gothenburg, Sweden
Jason Henderson for the IAAF
1 August 1999 - The European Under-23 Championships were first held in Turku, Finland, in 1997 and were intended to act as a bridge, or stepping stone, between junior and senior competition.
At the second staging of this event, held at Goteborg’s Ullevi Stadium, the venue of the 1995 IAAF World Championships, several athletes who are also expected to win medals in Sevilla later this month also competed. With mixed success.
Men’s long jumper Yago Lamela will be one of Spain’s main IAAF World Championship medal hopes when he competes on home soil in Sevilla. Here he won easily with a jump of 8.36 metres.
In the men’s pole vault Romain Mesnil of France vaulted 5.93 to beat Sergey Bubka’s stadium record of 5.92m, set when he won the world title in 1995.
Manuela Levorato of Italy scored a sprint double when she won the 100m in 11.26 seconds on the second day of the four day championships and then the 200m on day three. In the longer event she beat world junior champion Muriel Hurtis of France, 22.68 to 22.85.
Finland maintained their fine tradition in the javelin. Harri Haatainen took the men’s gold with 83.02 metres with his team-mate Ville Rasanen winning silver.
European men’s 800m champion, both indoors and out, Nils Schumann led from start to finish to win in 1:45.21. Schumann’s victory helped his country, Germany, to top the medal table.
Schumann’s team-mate Nastja Ryshich was beaten in the women’s pole vault by Iceland’s Vala Flosadottir, who cleared 4.30 metres. In the 3000m steeplechase, Spar European Cup winner Gael Pencreach of France was beaten by Gunther Weidlinger of Austria.
Olivera Jevtic of Yugoslavia is another athlete expected to do well in Sevilla, but here she doubled up in the women’s distance events - winning the 10,000m in 32:37.59 on day two and then finishing third in the 5000m the following day behind the winner Katalin Szentgyorgyi of Hungary who ran 15:18.80.
After his World University Games title, high jumper Ben Challenger won his second gold in a month here when he cleared 2.30m. The Great Britain athlete changes his hair (color and style) before almost every competition and his latest hairstyle - a set of pleats - was put in for him by his team-mate Natasha Danvers, the winner of the women’s 400m hurdles the day before.
Sevilla medal hopes Rui Silva of Portugal and Lidia Chojecka of Poland won the men’s and women’s 1500m races. But some athletes used these championships to try and win selection for Sevilla.
Great Britain sprinter Christian Malcolm, the double world junior champion, won silvers in the men’s 100m behind Christoforos Choidis of Greece and the 200m behind John Ertzgaard of Norway. The latter event after Ertzgaard and Malcolm were given the same time of 20.47.
Malcolm was looking to impress British selectors, but said: "We’re all serving our apprenticeship here. And to be a good winner you first have to learn to be a good loser."
Many of the apprentices in Goteborg will have to be fast learners if they are to be
winners in Sevilla.
For results: www.gfif.se
Jason Henderson writes for Athletics Weekly
