by Alfonz Juck
Eilidh Doyle, 400 meter semi-final, photo by Getty Images/European Athletics
EME News provides daily news for the well-informed track and field fans and observers. One of his finest services is his daily reports on the global, regional and national championships.
EME NEWS (MAR 3, 2017)
QUOTES OF THE DAY
I had a lot of doubts before coming here,” Thiam said. “Because after Rio people were expecting a lot from me and I only wanted to come here if I was well prepared. I did my thing and in the first four events everything went great. I feel a little bad about the 800 metres, but I won and that’s what matters. I train to compete at championships and of course it is great to deliver a win.”
AGENTS (by gold medals)
Helena Van der Plaetsen, Jozsef Babinyecz, Jose Praia, Carine Messerschmidt, Stina Funke.
MEDALS
GER, HUN, POL 1-0-1, BEL, GBR 1-0-0, BLR 0-1-1
POINTS
GER 25, FRA 20.5, HUN 19, POL 17, BLR 16, CZE 11
WORLD LEADS
4 – Thiam 4870, Nykyforov 818, Hess 17.52, Marton 19.28
WORLD INDOOR U20 RECORD
1 – Raffin 17.20
MEET RECORDS
1- Thiam 196 (Heptathlon HJ)
TITLE DEFENDERS
So far only Anita Marton in shot put
OTHER BELGRADE INFO
BELGRADE (SRB): Britain’s Laura Muir made it two for two today, also advancing to the final of the 1500m after 3000 m. Her hopes of winning gold in both the 1500m and 3000m remain alive. “I wanted to conserve as much as I could ahead of the finals tomorrow and on Sunday,” Muir told UK Athletics after the race. “Home athletes always seem to pull it out the bag, so I had to keep an eye out for the other girl [Terzic], but I got the job done.” She added: “You always want to win a race, so you just have to be sensible and just do what is necessary. The job is done for tomorrow, so I’ll just rest-up now.”
BELGRADE (SRB): European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen has said he wants to see Russia return to international athletics and has said “progress” is visible, informs Reuters. “We want Russia back, that is clear. We are working very closely on this situation and we had a meeting in Monaco a month ago. The task force gave their report and they saw progress in Russia. I see progress in Russia, and I have the feeling that there is a change of mentality there, especially at the top level. This is the way to go and I hope they will be back sooner rather than later,” he said.
BELGRADE (SRB): Eilish McColgan is competing in Belgrade despite being diagnosed with a virus, informs Race Results Weekly. “I had blood tests that came back that I had a virus, but they didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t anything major; just a head cold, a sore head. Just tired; I was sleeping like 12 hours a day. I was practically hibernating,” she said. McColgan qualified for the 3000m final but withdrew from the 1500m heats.
BELGRADE (SRB): Ireland´s John Travers has advanced to the men’s 1500m final after an appeal following a seventh place finish in 3:59.72 in his heat. A false start recall led to him stopping for several seconds along with Spanish athlete Marc Alcala. Team manager Patsy McGonagle successfully appealed afterwards where Alcala also advanced with the referee citing rule 146.3.
BELGRADE (SRB): As usual deep quality in women pentathlon with 7 personal bests out of the field of 15 athletes. Nafi Thiam missed the Belgian record of Tia Hellebaut only by 7 points.
