GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, March 01-03—Much to the surprise of many, Norway had gone the previous 49 years of the European Indoor Championships (34 editions in all) without getting a single gold medal but, within the space of 30 minutes, runners from the Scandinavian country notched up a brace to bring a broad smile to the continent’s head honcho for the sport, former Bislett Games organizer Svein Arne Hansen.
First up was the 18-year-old prodigy Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who became the youngest ever European indoor champion with a stunning finish to take the 3000 title. As was frequently commented upon in Glasgow, Ingebrigtsen—who got a memorable 1500/5000 European double outdoors in Berlin last summer—seemed to need almost no recovery.
On the first day, the 18-year-old phenomenon won his 1500 heat in 3:42.00 and just 90 minutes later set a European Junior (U20) Record of 7:51.20 when winning his 3000 prelim. Expectations were high that he would go into new territory again over 15 laps under cover in the final the following day but, instead, he decided on a different set of tactics and opted to not challenge the dawdling pace over the first 2K before surging with 4 laps to go. No one could stay with his sustained long run for home, Ingebrigtsen winning in 7:56.15 with Britain’s Tulsa alum Chris O’Hare taking the silver after just edging past the winner’s older brother Henrik in the last couple of meters, the pair being given the same time of 7:57.19.
The roars from a small but noisy contingent of Norwegian supporters had barely died down before reigning world 400H champion Karsten Warholm took to the track and—having gone through the first 200 in 21.38—equaled the European 400 record of 45.05—which had been in sole possession of East Germany’s Thomas Schönlebe since ’88 and remains the oldest of European men’s indoor records on the books. Behind Warholm, Óscar Husillos got some redemption after being first across the line at last year’s World Indoors, clocking 44.92 before being disqualified for breaking too early, by getting the silver in a Spanish Record 45.66.
Said Warholm, “I felt confident after the earlier rounds and I knew I could run fast and I had a good performance in me. But I like to let my legs speak for me. 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.”
On the final day, Jakob Ingebrigtsen chased a 1500/3000 double but just came up short in the metric mile when he had to settle for silver behind Poland’s reigning champion Marcin Lewandowski, the only one of 7 men defending titles in Glasgow to retain his crown. A dreadfully slow early pace played to Lewandowski’s strengths despite Ingebrigtsen having set a WJR 3:36.02 two weeks before and with 300 to go the Pole—who has run a 1:43.72 outdoors—hit the front and managed to hold off his young rival. Lewandowski won in 3:42.85 to Ingebrigtsen’s 3:43.23 to ensure that he will be one of the poster boys for the meet’s next edition, which will be held in the Polish city of Toruń in ’21.
It was also a great 3 days in Scotland for Poland, which got 7 golds to top the medal table, helped by a PV 1-2 from Paweł Wojciechowski and Piotr Lisek. Wojciechowski was behind for much of the competition and had a series littered with failures and when the defending champion and ’19 world-leader Lisek went over 19-2¼ (5.85) at the first time of asking that looked like it could be the vault for gold. However, the ’11 world champ, after his first failure at that height, then opted to take his remaining attempts at 19-4¼ (5.90) and slithered over with his second jump and Lisek couldn’t respond.
There were 2 world leads, as Greek long jumper Miltiádis Tentóglou leapt an NR 27-6 (8.38) in round 5 to add a continental indoor title to the one he won outdoors in the German capital last summer while Spain’s Jorge Ureña – very much an indoor heptathlon specialist as his poor throws usually exclude him from deca medal contention outdoors – put together a heptathlon tally of 6218 to win by 62 from Britain’s ’18 NCAA indoor and outdoor multi-events champ Tim Duckworth.
EURO INDOOR CHAMPS MEN’S RESULTS
Glasgow, Scotland, March 01-03 (200 banked)—
(3/1—3000h; 3/2—60, 400, 3K, HJ, PV)
60 METERS
1. Ján Volko (Svk) 6.60; 2. Emre Zafer Barnes (Tur) 6.61; 3. Joris van Gool (Hol) 6.62 =PR.
400 METERS
1. Karsten Warholm (Nor) 45.05 NR, =ER (21.38/23.67); 2. Óscar Husillos (Spa) 45.66 (21.61/24.05) NR; 3. Tony van Diepen (Hol) 46.13 NR.
800 METERS
1. Álvaro de Arriba (Spa) 1:46.83; 2. Jamie Webb (GB) 1:47.13 PR; 3. Mark English (Ire) 1:47.39.
1500 METERS
1. Marcin Lewandowski (Pol) 3:42.85 (13.26, 26.19); 2. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Nor) 3:43.23 (13.46, 26/54); 3. Jesús Gómez (Spa) 3:44.39.
3000 METERS
1. Ingebrigtsen 7:56.15 (13.51, 27.06); 2. Chris O’Hare (GB) 7:57.19 (12.62, 27.52); 3. Henrik Ingebrigtsen (Nor) 7:57.19 (14.23, 28.05). Heats
I–1. J. Ingebrigtsen 7:51.20 NJR.
60 HURDLES
1. Milan Trajkovic (Cyp) 7.60; 2. Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (Fra) 7.61; 3. Aurel Manga (Fra) 7.63.
4 x 400
1. Belgium 3:06.27 (Julien Watrin 46.81, Dylan Borlée 46.52, Jonathan Borlée 46.75, Kevin Borlée 46.19); 2. Spain 3:06.32 NR (Óscar Husillos 46.40, Manuel Guijarro 47.22, Lucas Bua 45.74, Bernat Erta 46.96); 3. France 3:07.71.
HIGH JUMP
1. Gianmarco Tamberi (Ita) 7-7¼ (2.32) (7-1¾, 7-3¼, 7-5, 7-6, 7-7¼ [2], 7-8 [xp], 7-8¾ [xx]) (2.18, 2.22, 2.26, 2.29, 2.32 [2], 2.34 [xp], 2.36 [xx]); 2. tie, Konstadínos Baniótis (Gre)& Andrii Protsenko (Ukr) 7-5 (2.26).
POLE VAULT
1. Paweł Wojciechowski (Pol) 19-4¼ (5.90) PR (17-4½, 17-10½, 18-2½, 18-6½ [3], 18-10¼ [2], 19-¼, 19-2¼ [xp] 19-4¼ [2], 19-6¼ [xxx]) (5.30, 5.45, 5.55, 5.65 [3], 5.75 [2], 5.80, 5.85 [xp] 5.90 [2], 5.95 [xxx]); 2. Piotr Lisek (Pol) 19-2¼ (5.85); 3. Melker Svärd Jacobsson (Swe) 18-10¼ (5.75).
LONG JUMP
1. Miltiádis Tentóglou (Gre) 27-6 (8.38) NR (WL) (f, 26-7¾, f, 26-9¼, 27-6, p) (f, 8.12, f, 8.16, 8.38, p);
2. Thobias Nilsson Montler (Swe) 26-9¾ (8.17) PR; 3. Strahinja Jovančević (Ser) 26-4¼ (8.03) NR.
TRIPLE JUMP
1. Nazim Babayev (Aze) 56-8¾ (17.29) PR (55-8¼, f, f, 56-8¾, f, f) (16.97, f, f, 17.29, f, f); 2. Nelson Évora (Por) 56-1¾ (17.11); 3. Max Heß (Ger) 56-1¼ (17.10).
SHOT
1. Michał Haratyk (Pol) 71-½ (21.65) PR (71-½, 69-11¾, 70-3¾, f, f, f) (21.65, 21.33, 21.43, f, f, f); 2. David Storl (Ger) 70-8 (21.54; 3. Tomáš Staněk (CzR) 69-8¾ (21.25).
HEPTATHLON
1. Jorge Ureña (Spa) 6218 (WL) (6.96, 24-3/7.39, 48-2/14.68, 6-9½/2.07, 7.78, 16-4¾/5.00, 2:44.27);
2. Tim Duckworth (GB) 6156 (6.85, 25-6¾/7.79, 42-6¾/12.97, 6-11¾/2.13, 8.16, 16-4¾/5.00, 2:49.44); 3. Ilya Shkurenyov (Rus) 6145 (7.18, 25-1¾/7.66, 46-11/14.30, 6-8½/2.04, 8.02, 17-¾/5.20, 2:45.35).
