by Stuart Weir
The World Athletics Indoor Tour just seems to get better and better. Perhaps that we are starved of being at live meets – it is one year to the week since I last attended a live meet – has made this appreciate getting to watch our sport even on the screen. The Copernicus Cup in ToruÅ„, Poland, consisted of 12 events six for men six for women, it’s on the track and four field events. Track events were from 60 to 3000 meters. If I counted correctly there were 27 PR performances including a number of national records.
The Copernicus Cup, Torun, Poland, photo via BBC TV by Stuart Weir
While it was some stellar performances in the sprints, it was in the longer events where we had the most memorable competition. My only negative was the number of faulty starts. The worst was the men’s 60m hurdles which started four times before managing to finish. Yet only one athlete was disqualified for a false start and that in the third running. To the naked eye does seem to be other false starts but they were not called – begging the question, if they were not a legal starts why was the race stopped.
The Copernicus Cup, Torun, Poland, photo via BBC TV by Stuart Weir
They will wins by a large margin and there was the high jump with three athletes could only be separated on count back. There were four American winners – a great effort and commitment for them to overcome all the challenges of travel in this difficult year. There were three Ethiopian middle distance track wins and five European wins, one from each of five different countries.
The Copernicus Cup, Torun, Poland, photo via BBC TV by Stuart Weir
For the Europeans and added significance was that in this very arena in just over two weeks many of them will be competing again in the European Indoor Championships. To call tonight’s excellent program a curtain raiser seems insulting but it is just an indication that there is so much more to come.
See separate posts on the men’s and women’s performances.
