World Athletics News

European Athletics continues its series of profiles of women’s athletics leaders on the continent by talking to Irada Mehdiyeva from Azerbaijan.

Paula Radcliffe had to be assisted off the track after a virus left her weakened and out of the medals in the 10,000m at the 1998 European Championships in Budapest but the Brit was in unconquerable form at the Munich 2002 European Athletics Championships.

Michaela Meijer continued her superlative year by breaking the Swedish pole vault record in Norrkoping on Saturday (1).

Only 17, Elina Tzengko broke the world U20 javelin record on the first day of the Greek U20 Championships in Ioannina on Saturday (1) and she still has one full season left in the junior ranks.

Germany’s Johannes Vetter left it late but came away with victory in the javelin at the Kuortane Games on Saturday (1), a World Athletics Continental Tour Europe Bronze Meeting.

Jemma Reekie held off her more esteemed training partner Laura Muir in a thrilling 800m at the Triveneto Meeting Internazionale Meeting in Trieste on Saturday (1) evening, a European Athletics Outdoor Area Permit Meeting. 

The 2021 European 10,000m Cup will return to Highgate, London on 5 June when Europe’s leading distance runners and Great Britain’s foremost club runners will toe the start-line for a full day of racing at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track.  

The athletics season has been profoundly affected by the continuing coronavirus pandemic but the action steps up a pace over the next two weekends with international meetings in Kuortane and Trieste on Saturday (1) following by national championships action across the continent the following weekend.  

Renaud Lavillenie’s campaign at the 2013 European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg ended inauspiciously after his 6.07m clearance was deemed invalid and his campaign for a fourth title in Prague very nearly began on a similar note.

Pablo Torrijos became the first Spaniard to surpass the 17 metre-line outdoors in the triple jump in Castellon on Wednesday (29) evening.

The Spanish media had a field day when Bruno Hortelano won the 200m gold medal at the Amsterdam 2016 European Athletics Championships.

The last weekend of July saw several European-leading marks with the outstanding performer being Swedish javelin thrower Kim Amb who improved his personal best to 86.49m in Zweibrucken, Germany on Saturday (25).

Competing for the first time since a brief indoor season, European indoor and outdoor 1500m bronze medallist Ciara Mageean dispatched a high quality field over 800m at the Citius Champs in Berne on Friday (24) evening.

“I want to be world class in every event” is quite an ambition for a young heptathlete. But for Kate O’Connor, the first Irishwoman to score over 6000 points in the heptathlon, she is well on her way to achieving that ambition. 

Ivona Dadic set herself the target of breaking the 6000 points-barrier in the one hour heptathlon in Amstetten on Thursday (23) evening and the Austrian comfortably exceeded this total, scoring a European leading mark of 6235 points.

The 1978 European Athletics Championships 800m final remains one of the most thrilling middle-distance races ever – any championship, any era – and a mark of its magnitude is the fact that the winning time of 1:43.84 Is still a championship record more than four decades later.

European Athlete of the Year Karsten Warholm was giving some contemplation to contesting both the 400m and 400m hurdles at the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships but the Norwegian has set himself new targets with the Olympic Games postponed and the European Championships cancelled.

World and European hammer bronze medallist Bence Halasz approached his world leading mark of 78.86m in the hammer in Pardubice, Czech Republic on Wednesday (22).

Fatima Whitbread cut a dejected figure at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh after yet another major title slipped out of her grasp but the Brit discarded her nearlywoman tag in spectacular fashion the following month at the Stuttgart 1986 European Athletics Championships.

The ISTAF in Berlin has been given the green light to go ahead on 13 September by the relevant authorities and the organisers are planning to admit up to 3500 spectators into the Olympic Stadium which played host to the 2018 European Championships.