European Championships - Helsinki 2012

Pisco Sour

No thread has been set up for this yet so thought I'd get one going.

All starting up tomorrow. The first Irish in action are below. The times I have here are from the European Athletics website. I am assuming it is Finnish time but I am not certain, so I will just list the times on the website. Finnish time is 2 hours ahead of Irish time: (EDIT: Now changed to Irish times)

Amy Foster - 100m - 8am
Thomas Barr, Jason Harvey - 400m Hurdles - 8.50am
Jason Smyth - 100m - 9.40am
Brian Gregan - 400m - 11.35am
Jessie Barr - 400m Hurdles - 12.30pm

Joanne Cuddihy - 400m - 3.50pm
Amy Foster - 100m - 6.05pm
Jason Smyth - 100m - 6.15pm

walshb

I'll be keeping an eye on this. I see it's unusual that the event is in an Olympic year, and also very close to the games. Will this have any possible negative impact on the athletes. Surely they should be fine tuning and almost winding down in preparation for the games?

Pisco Sour

walshb wrote: »

I'll be keeping an eye on this. I see it's unusual that the event is in an Olympic year, and also very close to the games. Will this have any possible negative impact on the athletes. Surely they should be fine tuning and almost winding down in preparation for the games?

Controversial decision. I'm not in favour of it. I think it damages the prestige of the Europeans when it is not seen as THE major championship of a particular season. But the championships are taking place, so I'll be fully behind the Irish team.

Mods, can this be stickied for the week?

ThePiedPiper

There's been very little coverage or talk about these championships, it's a bit bizarre. The biggest news story is whose not going, ie. Chambers.

Are all the top athletes from most countries competing? Is there any TV coverage anywhere?

CoachDudie

I looked up RTÉ's coverage just there and it seems they have web only coverage of morning events and evening coverage on the TV from Thur-Sun. That's my reading of it anyway, although it doesn't state the time of the web only coverage. Here's the page: http://www.rte.ie/sport/features/2012/0614/325032-european-athletics-championships/

Pherekydes

Live coverage all day on Eurosport!

Women's long jump qualification. /drools

Pherekydes

Amy Foster first up, right now!

Go!

Pherekydes

11.58, which is reasonable, but Amy is eliminated.

Brianderunner

Impressive from Lalova, one of the fav's for gold after that

EauRouge79

Pherekydes wrote: »

Live coverage all day on Eurosport!

Women's long jump qualification. /drools

Good 'ol eurosport, in fairness they do give a lot of time to athletics. Would have been a pity to miss this event.

Pherekydes

Thomas Barr 2nd in a seasonal best!

Super run.

Pherekydes

Barr ran 50.59 and Harvey ran 51.83, the latter not quite good enough for a semi spot.

Pherekydes

Jason Smyth clocked 10.47 for 4th and an automatic semi slot.

Pherekydes

Jeez, Christophe Lemaitre looks effortless running 10.14 to win heat 3.

Woddle

http://eurovision.digotel.com/ea/index.html

Live stream if you're in work

Dodge

http://www.rte.ie/sport/player/#!/live/41/3/?autoplay=true

RTE streaming it here (excellent quality), with no commentary

the_real_lamp

Smyth has a tough draw in the Semi's with only two automatic qualifications, the SF includes Lemaitre, Aiknens-Aryeetey and Reus (GBR).
He will prob have to get close to his PB to qualify.

Dodge

Gregan wins heat in 45.63!!

the_real_lamp

Brilliant run!

Woddle

Looked very strong throughout and a PB
B standard aswell (don't think he had it) and looks like he could get close to that A standard 45:30

Rineanna

Great runs by Gregan and Barr, and good to see Smyth match his performance from Barcelona. Hopefully he'll get down to his 10.2x times from earlier this season.

Dodge

Gregan was really, really impressive. Took the lead early and maintained a good lead throughout. When do you see PBs in the heats of 400m?

45.63 is well inside Olympic b time (45.90). Could he improve agian in semi? olympic A time is 45.30

tang1

Great run by Brian Gregan to win his heat in new PB of 45.63. Looked very comfortable doing it to.

CoachDudie

Dodge wrote: »

Gregan was really, really impressive. Took the lead early and maintained a good lead throughout. When do you see PBs in the heats of 400m?

45.63 is well inside Olympic b time (45.90). Could he improve agian in semi? olympic A time is 45.30

I think the A time might be too much to ask and you don't often see back to back PBs but it's possible I suppose.

Dodge

Semi finals are Top 2 + 2 fastest. So he'll likely have to run a PB to qualify.

A standard does look too far in fairness

tang1

4 disqualified out of the 400m heats so far, for lane infractions.

Dodge

tang1 wrote: »

4 disqualified out of the 400m heats so far, for lane infractions.

7 in total. Including both GB runners

Gregan the fastest quailifier (the guy he beat in his heat in 2nd).

I'd expect a couple of appeals

walshb

Great PB improvement and yet still 3/10 shy of A standard for London for Gregan. Could he get it in this tournament? Big ask!

CoachDudie

Dodge wrote: »

7 in total. Including both GB runners

Gregan the fastest quailifier (the guy he beat in his heat in 2nd).

I'd expect a couple of appeals

Did 2 heat winners get disqualified? If the decisions are upheld I think Gregan wont need a PB to make the final. Something a little slower than his heat time would make it.

Dodge

Jessie Barr 3rd and through to semi

waiting on time

EDIT; 56.30

Pisco Sour

Absolute chaos in the 400m. Have never seen so many DQ's! What on earth is going on!?

Super run from Gregan. Easy to say in hindsight but ya kind of knew he had that run in him. The sky's the limit now, especially with a fair few of the stronger guys getting DQ'd. The standard is nothing like it was 2 years ago (5 or 6 men under 45 in semis) so he has a great shot at ranking highly. Surely the IOC wouldn't be so stupid to leave him behind if he doesn't get the A-Standard?

Really great runs from both Thomas and Jessie. I didn't catch where Thomas ranked overall but Jessie was tied 9th so she has a real shot at making the final. She'll probably need to go sub 56, which she is definetely capable of. A shame both 400m Hurdle semis are on during a morning session. Seems a bit disrespectful to the event IMO. I know there's time restrictions but seriously!!

Wasn't impressed with Smyth to be honest. He needs a hell of a lot better than 10.47 in order for the bureaucrats to be convinced to send him to London on a B. He made it through but that was to be expected, especially with such soft qualification.

Amy Foster and Jason Harvey probably performed close to expectation. Didn't expect either to make it through.

These morning sessions are really long drawn out. Grand when you've recorded it and have got the remote to flick through the stuff you don't want to watch, but doesn't exactly make for riveting viewing for spectators. There was about 90 minutes between track races at one point! WTF!

Slow start to the championships, but great start for Ireland.

CorkRunning

Dodge

Cuddihy comfortably through in 3rd

Dodge

her times was 52.20

SitUbuSit

She now appears to have been DQed.

Hopefully will get back in on appeal!

CoachDudie

What was she doing trying to catch the others? She could have walked the last 10 meters, she was that far ahead of 4th.

Flying Abruptly

Dq'ed for what?

CoachDudie

Out of lane.

YFlyer

Men steeplechase semi final starting now.

runjb

CoachDudie wrote: »

What was she doing trying to catch the others? She could have walked the last 10 meters, she was that far ahead of 4th.

She was probably aiming for a good lane draw for her semi final. As a tall athlete, she isn't suited to a tight lane such as lane 1 or 2.

But it looks to have been all in vein now, after a bitterly disappointing DQ. Hopefully an Irish appeal will be lodged, but if there is a clear lane infringement, it doesn't look good. She was slow and steady out of the blocks so I don't know how it happened.

I hope the Finns have the lines on the tracks painted on okay, as it seems a lot of athletes are getting into trouble over crossing the lanes!! Something I have never seen so much of at any championship.

runjb

AAI have lodged an appeal!

tang1

runjb wrote: »

I hope the Finns have the lines on the tracks painted on okay, as it seems a lot of athletes are getting into trouble over crossing the lanes!! Something I have never seen so much of at any championship.

According to Steve Cram on BBC coverage, the track was re-done before the championships because of the soccer pitch in the middle, this resulted in making the corners of the track tighter than normal.

YFlyer

Mo Farah Official Fan Page


In Helsinki...Just leaving the hotel to catch the bus to the stadium!! My 5k final at 5.40pm UK time on BBC red button..!! Shabba!!

the_real_lamp

Tweet from AI:

Confirmed Joanne Cuddihy DQ for clearly stepping into lane 4. Joanne accepts descion but is of course devastated #relayredemtion

DQ is upheld:(

Itziger

YFlyer wrote: »

Mo Farah Official Fan Page


In Helsinki...Just leaving the hotel to catch the bus to the stadium!! My 5k final at 5.40pm UK time on BBC red button..!! Shabba!!

Cool, thanks. Didn't even know it was on the red button.

YFlyer

YFlyer wrote: »

Mo Farah Official Fan Page


In Helsinki...Just leaving the hotel to catch the bus to the stadium!! My 5k final at 5.40pm UK time on BBC red button..!! Shabba!!

Cragg injured?

YFlyer

Easy

ecoli

Looking at that race I think it showed up Farah and in terms of a training exercise it was a bit of a failure. Him and Salazar have been working on speed alot this year in the hopes of preventing a similar situation as last year when Jelian outkicked him

Closed today slower than he did against Jelian in the 10,000m ( 53.69 today and last year was 53.3) despite a pedestrian pace which looked like he was just gearing up to see what he could close in. Only really broke the field in the last 200m (in fact was slightly getting reeled back in at about the 200m mark)

With Bekele coming back into form I honest can't see him beating KB come London

SeanKenny

Easy win for Farah, job done and now all eyes on London. The distance races there are a mouth watering prospect.

the_real_lamp

ecoli wrote: »

Looking at that race I think it showed up Farah and in terms of a training exercise it was a bit of a failure. Him and Salazar have been working on speed alot this year in the hopes of preventing a similar situation as last year when Jelian outkicked him

Closed today slower than he did against Jelian in the 10,000m ( 53.69 today and last year was 53.3) despite a pedestrian pace

With Bekele coming back into form I honest can't see him beating KB come London

Agreed that while he won easily, it wasn't an overly impressive last 400m (says the 1:37 Half runner!), however given the inconsistency of Bekele in the last 18 months, I still think Farah is the slight favourite. Wouldn't back him mind.

woodchopper

Good to see auld Kemboi from Turkey up in the medals!