Bartamaha (Nairobi):-Britain’s Mo Farah broke Spanish hearts on Tuesday as he sped away from home favourite Ayad Lamdassem on the final lap for a comprehensive victory in the men’s 10,000 metres final at the European championships.
On a balmy evening at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium, Chris Thompson made it a British one-two as he held off Italian Daniele Meucci, although they were both given the same time.
Britain was not the only nation to enjoy a one-two on the opening day of the championships.
Belarus took the top two places in the women’s shot put final through Nadezhda Ostapchuk and Natallia Mikhnevich.
Russia had the honour of taking the first gold thanks to teenager Stanislav Yemelyanov’s victory in the men’s 20-km walk in his first season competing as a senior.
Yemelyanov, 19, finished in a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 10 seconds with Italy’s 50-km walk Olympic champion Alex Schwazer 28 seconds behind. Portugal’s Joao Vieira finished third to repeat his bronze medal of four years ago.
Cheered on by a sparse but noisy crowd, waving red and yellow Spanish flags, Moroccan-born Lamdassem hit the front in the 10,000 metres with three laps to go but could not sustain the tempo and eventually finished a disconsolate fourth.
Somali-born Farah, silver medallist in the 5,000 at the 2006 Europeans, kicked hard just after the bell as he and Lamdassem were lapping stragglers and the Spaniard had no answer to the Briton’s sudden injection of pace.
The goatee-bearded 27-year-old pulled clear and crossed the line with his arms outstretched with joy to win in 28 minutes, 24.99 seconds.
“I can’t quite believe it. It’s not been easy,” said Farah who was given a Union Jack with the words ‘fly mo’ on it after he crossed the line.
“Coming second four years ago I had that in my head and each year since I’ve been thinking about it. So to get the gold means so much to me.
“Now I look forward to the 5,000. I need to recover fast,” added Farah, who is likely to come up against Spain’s European champion Jesus Espana.
At the other end of the distance scale, Europe’s two fastest athletes remained on track for a head-to-head in Wednesday’s 100 metres final after safely coming through their heats.
France’s Christophe Lemaitre barely broke sweat as he clocked the quickest time of the heats with 10.19, while Briton Chambers was not too far behind his young rival, winning the first heat in 10.21.
“It was comfortable. It was a bit nerve-wracking at the beginning, as it always is,” said Chambers, who was stripped of the 2002 European title after failing a drugs test in 2003 and admitting to doping.
“There is pressure beforehand, but once I’m on the start line I clear everything out of my head and concentrate on one thing and that’s winning each round,” the 32-year-old added.
Defending champion Francis Obikwelu of Portugal also reached the semis, as did visually-impaired sprinter Jason Smyth, the first Paralympian to compete at the Europeans. The Irish double Paralympic champion ran 10.43 for fourth in the final heat behind Lemaitre.
ONE BETTER
World indoor shot put champion Ostapchuk went one better than her European silver of four years ago with a best effort of 20.48 metres in the final.
The Belarussian, who led from her opening throw of 19.67, beat compatriot Mikhnevich in a reverse of the 2006 result.
Anna Avdeyeva prevented a Belarussian clean sweep when she threw 19.39 on her final attempt to take the bronze ahead of Yanina Pravalinskay-Karolchyk.
“I decided to put all my heart and soul into this sixth attempt. I achieved the performance (for a medal) and yelled like crazy. Now I’ve lost my voice but I won the bronze medal.”
Former world and Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft enjoyed a “big victory” when she scraped into the women’s long jump final with a season’s best effort of 6.62 metres.
The Swede, who ditched the heptathlon in favour of the long jump in 2008, has struggled since tearing a hamstring last July and was well behind defending champion Lyudmila Kolchanova who topped qualifying with 6.87.
“After being injured for such a long time to be in a big championship again, that feels so great,” the beaming 27-year-old told reporters. “This is what sport is about, so for me, even if I’m 12th into the final I’m still very, very happy.”
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Source:-Reuters.
