by Stuart Weir
This is the second in a series on the 2023 European Team Championships in Poland.
European Team Championships Division 1
At the end of the first day of the European Team Championships Division 1 (men and women combined) – that is, 12 of 37 events, Italy lead with 141 points, Britain are second with 131.5 points, and the hosts P:oland third with 127. The format is one athlete from each of 16 countries with basically 1 team point for every athlete you beat.
In my preview yesterday, I talked about the great atmosphere I’ve experienced at this event previously in Poland. Well, not today, with perhaps 1,000 spectators in a stadium that holds 50,000.
Remember, this is part of the European Games, so perhaps all the spectators were at Archery, Artistic Swimming, Badminton, Beach Handball, Beach Soccer, Boxing, Breaking, Canoe Slalom, Basketball (3X3), Cycling, Diving, Fencing, Judo, Karate, Kick Boxing, Modern Pentathlon, Mountain Bike, Muaythai, Padel, Rugby 7, Shooting, Ski Jumping, Sport Climbing, Taekwondo, Teqball, Triathlon or Table Tennis! Or perhaps they were not!
The standard of competition was very varied, from the sublime to the embarrassing. Femke Bol was having a day off from her main event, so she ran 49.82 in the flat 400! In the men’s pole vault, 5 athletes cleared 5.80. In the men’s triple jump, the winning distance was 16.84, with six athletes failing to reach 15 meters.
The winners were:
Women
100m: Ewa Swoboda, Poland 11.09
400m: Femke Bol, Netherlands 49.82
5000m: Nadia Battocletti, Italy 15:25.09
Shot: Auriol Dongmo, Portugal 19.07
Hammer: Sara Fantini Italy 73.26
Discus: Kristin Pudenz, Germany 66.84
Men
100m: Samuele Ceccarelli, Italy 10.13
400m: Håvard Bentdal Ingvaldsen, Norway 44.88
800m: Andreas Kramer, Sweden 1:46.92
3000m: SC: Daniel Arce, Spain 8:25.88
Triple Jump: Tobia Bocchi 16.84
Pole Vault: Menno Vloon Netherlands, 5:85
Two days to go.
