by Stuart Weir
Sprints, photo by Getty Images/ European Athletics
The highlights of day 2 in Glasgow’s Emirates Arena are discussed here in Stuart Weir’s day two highligrht column.
Day 2 Highlights
It was a good day for Poland with Pawel Wojciechowski winning the pole-vault, yes a pole won the pole-vault! Another Pole, Piotr Lisek, using a pole, was second. Ewa Swoboda, without a pole,won the 60m in 7.09
The contrast between the two pole-vaulters was fascinating with Lisek failing at 5.90 (twice) and 5.95 after reaching 5.85 with a 100% record. Wojciechowski on the other hand had had 3 failues before clearing 5.75. Wojciechowski put his success down to character: “It´s all been successful although it was a difficult start. You need to be a fighter and believe till the end. Our coach was totally right in saying that you need to fight and have faith. After so many jumps it´s difficult to believe and train up for a 5.90m jump. I know I will jump higher and fight till the end”. I think he is a fighter
It was also a good day for Norway with Jakob Ingebrigtsen winning the 3000m with brother Henrik third.(See seperate post) Karsten Warholm won the 400m despite the absence of hurdles. Disappointingly he behaved normally afterwards, rather than running around with a Viking helmut on as he did in London 2017. Perhaps he was too worried for his survival, judging by his comments afterwards: “It was a team effort, me and my coach. It was more difficult for my coach. He was worried about things happening. People can step on you or you can fall. It is a risk. I like the outdoors but it is fun to come here and prove that I am in good shape”.
Gianmarco Tamberi (Italy) won the long-jump and there was not a happier man in the arena. When he cleared 2.32, he did summersaults, pretended to be a goalkeeper and played imaginary volleyball – before attempting and failing at 2.34 and 2.36. His enthusiasm comes out clearly in his comments: “It´s something amazing. It’s something I was expecting for too long. I want to tell everyone what happened over the past two years and how serious my injury was. Yes, Gimbo (his nickname) is back and only I and a couple of people know what it means. On returning to victory after three years since winning the world indoor championships: It´s only a start towards the Tokyo Olympics. I knew I felt great, it was only me who could lose this competition tonight. My conditions were amazing. I tried to focus for my season´s best but it was impossible. I wanted it so much. I told myself ‘Don´t give up. Don’t ruin this moment because it´s your moment.’ I knew I could come back one day. Now I want to enjoy this moment”.
Lea Sprunger took the women’s 400m wrrith a WL 51.61 but, she added, “This is just something I do for fun and if it ends like that then it´s amazing”.
Jan Volko of Slovakia won the men’s 60m in 6.60
