Tag Archives: Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad

European Athletics Championships 2014 – Day 6

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Well, it’s over now. A very good championship it was, certainly better than the 2012 edition. But no time for summaries yet, there are still the events of the last day that we need to cover!

Shot Put Women Final

It’s strange to watch a shot put competition without the greatest female athlete of the last decade – Valerie Adams. Maybe we can make an exception and let her compete just for kicks? No? Okay L…

Anyway, without her majesty Valerie, Christina Schwanitz was the clear favorite. I was actually a bit surprised when I checked and saw that she never was even a medalist in the European championships yet! This has got to be her competition, I thought to myself. And it turned out it was. Continue reading →

European Athletics Championships 2014 – Day 3

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The third day of the championships was probably the most exciting one yet. It was destined to be the day of the French, and it was in many ways, but it took several unexpected turns.

Javelin Men Qualification

Andreas Thorkildsen, the greatest javelin thrower since Jelezny, didn’t enter the competition. He was in a really bad form this whole year, so it makes sense. But still one feels sad for his career in the last couple of years. Did we see the end of this great throwers, probably one of the top 3 of all-time? He’s still young for the javelin, a mere 32 years old, the same age as Pitkamaki who still throws at the highest levels.

There was a very big difference between the 2 qualification groups. While not a single thrower met the automatic qualification mark in the first group, 4 throwers did it in the second. Continue reading →