Written by Şevket F. ERBAY in Munich
More than 1500 athletes featured at the post-World Championships event for Euro titles in Munich's historic Olympiastadion. The seven-day athletics festival staged some memorable moments as Germany had the lead at the medal table ahead of arch-rivals Great Britain.
European Athletics Championships was part of the nine-sport event, held in the Munich 1972 Olympic Park on the 50th anniversary. Athletics programme was contested in 12 sessions during seven days and nearly 200,000 fans flocked to the Olympiastadion.
FEMKE MADE HISTORY
The undisputed superstar of Munich 2022 was common for every spectator: Femke Bol of the Netherlands. 400m hurdles European record holder Bol has come to the Bavarian capital for trying the unusual double in one lap race - both dash and hurdles. The 22-year-old talent sealed the victory in 400 metres by 49.44 NR with half a second lead over Poland's Natalia Kaczmarek. Just two days later in 400m hurdles, Bol has lowered the championship record to 52.67 and built an unassailable margin over two pursuing Ukrainians. These two finals exceptionally confirmed that she is today's best European one-lap runner.
And yet again, Femke Bol got her third gold in 4x400 metres as an anchor performer for the Netherlands. The Orange vest ladies clocked a superb 3:20.87 European lead and huge NR as Femke put her magic in the final lap with a 48.52 split to catapult her team for the gold.
GERMAN SURGE
Germany is a powerhouse of European sport but has been struggling for a while, even at their traditional events. In Munich, they relieved in athletics and achieved the most medals since 1998. The host nation representatives have stood on the podium 16 times, including seven titles.
The adorable German sprinter Gina Lückenkemper became nation's darling after her crazy victory in 100 metres final, toppling Mujinga Kambundji – who later got 200m gold – and in-form British Daryll Neita in a dead-lock photo-finish. She did not have an ideal start in the final but accelerated with the help of a roar of 40,000-strong German support and eventually took the gold with an only 0.005 secs margin over Kambundji. It became the first German 100 metres gold since Verena Sailer’s 2010 feat.
Lückenkemper and her team-mates, Alexandra Burghardt, Lisa Mayer and Rebekka Haase have turned Olympiastadion’s atmosphere Oktoberfest-like at the very end. They clocked 42.34 in 4x100 relay final as big favourite Britain dropped the baton – all stadium celebrated the seventh gold medal in athletics – which put Germany on top of the table.
Richard Ringer was surely one of the underlined performers of Munich 2022. Former European 10,000 Metres Cup champion Ringer secured marathon gold in Odeonplatz after his mischievous finish over Israel’s Maru Teferi, who ran solely in last several kilometres. Ringer just got his final kick with 200 metres to go and passed Teferi on the sly.
Former world champion decathlete Niklas Kaul secured decathlon gold after his stellar 1500 metres (4:10.04) having recovered from the seventh place at the end of first day. Julian Weber added another gold in German account in traditional event javelin as Konstanze Klosterhalfen took 5000 metres gold while denied Turkey’s Yasemin Can distance double in Munich.
One of the biggest clashes on the paper occurred in women’s long jump. Malaika Mihambo was aiming to be only the third title defender in Euro Champs history like her idol Heike Drechsler who sat on the media box as a commentator (different from the last edition in Berlin where the German legend had been on duty as sand pit maker), but she lost a tight battle to graceful Serbian, Ivana Vuleta. The 32-year-old Serbian star added a European gold to her amazing medal board yet again, with her first round effort of 7.06m – three centimetres better than Malaika. It was the first women’s long jump contest in the championship that went beyond 7 metres mark since 1998.
RETURNING HEROES
Three fallen heroes of World Championships were back to business in the European territory. Italian Olympic champions Marcell Jacobs and Gianmarco Tamberi both secured golds in their respective events of 100 metres and high jump as Norwegian hurdles king Karsten Warholm clocked a very quick 47.12 championships record in 400m hurdles final. Warholm distanced 1.44 seconds from closest rival in the title race.
Munich’s “longevity of feat” credit must surely be submitted to Sandra Perkovic, who sealed the sixth consecutive title at her premium event of discus throw – becoming the only athlete in championship history to do this. Perkovic was challenged by Olympic silver medallist Kristin Pudenz of Germany, who recovered from a very heart-breaking Oregon performance last month, and won the tight battle by only seven centimetres. The contest leadership changed five times during the competition, as Pudenz marked 67.87 personal best and two more over-65 attempts, but still came short of surpassing Perkovic who peaked 67.95 metres in the fifth round. Meanwhile, German consolation have doubled as Claudine Vita (65.20m) stood on the podium as well with a bronze medal in discus.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
After seven-day highly contested championship, here are some other highlights that must be underlined:
- Romania won their first European title in 20 years, thanks to Bianca Ghelber in hammer throw. She previously took part in three Olympics, seven Worlds and four Euros and never been on a podium.
- Two small Balkan nations have celebrated their biggest achievements at the Euros. The experienced Albanian all-around distancer Luiza Gega finally took her deserved gold in European Champs in 3000SC by clocking 9:11.31, a championship record – and became the first Albanian titlist on continental basis (outdoor). Nearby, Marija Vukovic, the tall and statuesque Montenegrin was crowned as silver medallist in high jump – also a first for her country.
- In Munich, nine championships records have been set in eight different events as discus throw mark was broken twice. World champion Kristjan Ceh broke the existing mark in the qualifying round by 69.08, then Mykolas Alekna threw 69.78m in the final – stealing from his rival both the gold and the record.
- Greece’s Antigoni Drisbioti achieved a great success in race walking. She has walked 2:47:00 to secure the 35K title on 16 August, and came back on the course four days later to complete her amazing double in 20K. The 38-year-old Drisbioti walked first ever sub-1:30 20K in her career despite a wet and cool Saturday morning. Her two golds helped Greece’s greatest ever overall achievement in European Champs.
- Jacob Ingebrigtsen has repeated the 1500-5000 double in the European Championships, as he had done so four years ago in Berlin. Additionally, he marginally broke Fermin Cacho’s 3:35.27 CR which lasted for 28 years in 1500 metres.
- Israel made an astonishing success in Munich where their Olympics team experienced one of the darkest disasters of sports history during Black September terror attacks at the 1972 Games. Israelis sent 15 athletes to Munich and harvested five medals from them (one gold, one silver and three bronzes)
