One of my favorite columns to read is EME News, the work of Alfons Juck and his team on the Quotes of Day, and other esoterica only found at Championships. Here is the column for day one.
Berlin Olympic Stadium, 7 August 2018, photo by Stuart Weir
BERLIN DAY 1
QUOTE OF THE DAY
David Storl: “I am definitely happy with this medal, it is my fourth medal at European Championships. I saw my teammate Gina win the silver and I saw my teammate Arthur in the 400m of the decathlon: Man! Awesome! Germany can really look forward to great championships!”
Kevin Mayer: “This is a black day for me. I do not have an excuse. I am very sorry for those who expected a lot of me, for all my fans. I was in great shape, but today the others were better. I wanted to show much more than this. This was a big mistake. I took a high risk. But I do not regret the risk”
RESULT OF THE DAY
Dina Asher-Smith breaking her British record with 10.85 to win the 100m title,
SURPRISE OF THE DAY
Kevin Mayer fouling out in the decathlon long jump (and also his French team mates too); Christoph Harting crashing out in the discus together with Piotr Malachowski.
FAVORITE WINS/FALLS
Nowicki maintains recent winning record over Fajdek; Asher-Smith and Hughes deliver as expected in 100m and Prescod equaled British U23 record; reigning champion Arikan drops out of the 10,000m final; Mayer out of the decathlon.
EUROPEAN LEADS 2016 (1)
Asher-Smith 100 m (also equals WL).
MEDALS (14 countries)
1. POL 2-2-0, 2. GBR 2-1-0, 3. UKR 1-1-0, 4. FRA + POR 1-0-0, 6. GER 0-1-1
POINTS (19 countries)
1. POL 35, 2. UKR 26, 3. GER 18, 4. GBR 15, 5. BLR + ESP 14
AGENT RANKINGS (by individual gold medals)
Czeslaw Zapala 2, Riad Ouled, Ricky Simms, Norman Peart. No agents known for Maryan Zakalnitskiyy and Ines Henriques.
MEET RECORDS (3)
Henriques 50 km walk, Vicaut 100 m semifinal, Hughes 100 m final
STATS
Two doubles for Poland, men shot and men hammer, never happened before. Best times in 100 m final at European Championships for positions 1-6, best results ever at European champs in shot put men for positions 3-12. First ever 10k win for France in men competition. Henriques 4:09:21 is 6th fastest ever at 50 km performance by a woman. Luckenkemper clocked twice 10.98 European U23 record in semis and finals. In total 11 women achieved the standard 17.20 in shot put qualification, but only 5 men in discus qualification.
BERLIN NEWS
Jimmy Vicaut did not run the final due to pain in his right thigh in the warm-up. Briton Duckworth after great high jump 217 is the overnight decathlon leader 4380 over German Abele 4285 (strong second day) and Norway´s Roe 4282. Slovak Matej Toth and his silver in 50 km meant for him gold after what he went through last year.
