Five takeaways from Day 1
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is back. The 5k race was intriguing; Jakob did not dominate it. In fact, early on he was way off the pace; was he struggling? When Florian Bremm made his burst for glory, Jakob seemed not to respond; was it over for him? At the end, Jakob crossed the line first.
Shot put makes you happy. It may have been a Dutch 1-2 with Jessica Schilder winning from Jorinde van Klinken, but it was Yemisi Mabry who was dancing! Yemi, a lady with a strong Christian faith, has been known to sing gospel songs to journalists in the mixed zone.
The 4X400 mixed relay is a brilliant event which brings so much excitement to a track meet. Traditionally, relays are on the last day of a championship. Having it on day 1 is a challenge. Do potential individual medalists want to have that extra race in their legs? Well, it didn’t stop Karsten Warholm from running the first leg. As the final leg started and the three women set off, the Netherlands led GB with Norway third. On the final straight, Yemi Mary John put GB into the lead. Norway then Henriette Jæger lived up to her name – Jaeger means hunter – and hunted the two girls in front of her to win the gold.
Amy Hunt staked a strong claim to being the fastest woman in Europe when she added European 100 gold to her World 200 silver. I loved her comment after the race, “I could have cried when I finished but I am not very emotional”. And on the theme of names, given that she was seventh after 10 meters, Amy Hunt can be said to have hunted the others down.
Our sport can be brutal: Two of my starkest memories of the day are sad ones. Zala Istenic of Slovenia was shown a red card at the start of the first 100m heat. Her championship was over before it had begun. Then there was Lovise Skarbøvik Andresen in a qualifying position in a prelim of the 100m hurdles, until she hit the last hurdle and fell. She lay face down on the track weeping.
