The final day of the European Indoor Championships, particularly both of the 3000m finals, illustrated perfectly why track racing is about so much more than just running in circles.
The tight 200m circuit within the cycling velodrome at the Omisport Arena in Apeldoorn features short straights and large, steeply-banked bends, and played host to two very dramatic distance races on Sunday (March 9).
The women’s 3000m final, won by Ireland’s Sarah Healy as she pipped Britain’s Melissa Courtney-Bryant to gold, featured all manner of bumps, falls and jostling – none more concerning than when Maureen Koster crashed to the floor.
The Dutch athlete collided with Britain’s Hannah Nuttall and was knocked unconscious after she hit the track, Koster being taken away to hospital on a stretcher. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for the Netherlands team to confirm on X: “Good news. Maureen is conscious and responsive after her fall.”
Even in the melee of the race, the competitors were still very aware of the urgent medical attention that Koster was receiving, while Courtney-Bryant – who is a close friend of the Dutchwoman and used to train with her – also found herself having to run wider to avoid some of the competitors in the men’s pole vault competition who were straying a little too close to the track for comfort.
Healy admitted she was unable to concentrate fully on the task at hand until the closing 1000m and covered that distance in 2:50 to come home in 8:52.86 and just edge Courtney-Bryant (8:52.92), who upgraded her two European Indoor bronze medals. Salomé Afonso of Portugal (8:53.42) completed the top three.
“It was absolute carnage,” said Courtney- Bryant. “I think I was getting pushed in the back until about a lap to go and I was running wide. Everyone just wanted to stay on their feet. I heard Maureen scream. It put everyone on edge and made everyone more anxious than normal.”
“[Carnage] is the right word,” agreed Healy. “I’m used to running the 1500m indoors and I thought running a 3000m wouldn’t be as messy but this changed my opinion completely. It was one of the messiest races I’ve been in.”
The 24-year-old did manage to plot a way through it all to become her nation’s first ever female European Indoor gold medallist. Having become a full-time athlete last year, the work she has been putting in as part of the M11 Track Club that is coached by Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows is clearly paying off.
Nuttall finished sixth in 8:54.60 while, on her senior British international debut, teenager Innes Fitzgerald clocked 8:57.00 for eighth.
There was a more predictable finish, and another British silver, in the men’s race but there were still lots of ebbs, flows, changes of pace and chess moves on show. As expected, though, Jakob Ingebrigtsen emerged triumphant to complete his third consecutive European Indoor 1500/3000m double.
The Norwegian rebuffed all of the challenges that were put to him and won in 7:48.37 to thwart the best efforts of British record-holder George Mills (7.49.41), who also finished second to Ingebrigtsen during the European 5000m in Rome last summer. Frenchman Azeddine Habz, silver medallist in the 1500m in Apeldoorn, was third in 7:50.48, while Mills’ team-mate James West finished fifth in 7:51.46.
Given this was his Ingebrigtsen’s 17th European title across the indoor, outdoor and cross country championships, does he ever get tired of winning?
“I hope not,” he said after matching Valeriy Borzov’s record of seven European Indoor gold medals won by a male athlete. “Then I think it’s finished. I like to compete and I think that’s what it’s all about. I wouldn’t be much motivated to jump on the treadmill if it wasn’t for a race coming up.”
Even travelling 60m in a straight line didn’t seem entirely straightforward during Sunday’s final session. In the women’s sprint final, defending champion Mujinga Kambundji was shown a yellow card for disturbing the start.
When the race did get off and running, Italian Zaynab Dosso proved just too quick as she set a world-leading 7.01 to beat the Swiss by just one hundredth of a second. In third, Patrizia van der Weken created history, breaking the Luxembourg national record with 7.06 and becoming her nation’s first ever female medallist at a major athletics championships.
Britain’s Amy Hunt, who had clocked a PB of 7.09 to reach the final, was sixth in 7.10.
Hunt’s team-mate Jade O’Dowda had looked on course to win a medal in the women’s pentathlon, having put together a series of personal bests across the events, but just came up short in the closing discipline, the 800m.
Gold went to world indoor silver medallist Saga Vanninen of Finland thanks to a European under-23 record-breaking tally of 4922, while a PB of 4826 helped Sofie Dokter add to the Netherlands’ medal haul and Kate O’Connor grabbed bronze with an Irish record-breaking 4781. O’Dowda had to settle for fourth with a personal best tally of 4751.
In the women’s high jump, Yaroslava Mahuchikh had been aiming for the championships record of 2.05m but it was a second-time clearance of 1.99m that gave her the title in Apeldoorn.
Young Serbian star Angelina Topic continued her development with silver, thanks to her leap of 1.95m, while Engla Nilsson of Sweden’s produced her lifetime best of 1.92m just when she needed it to win bronze on countback. Morgan Lake of Great Britain was fifth, having also cleared 1.92m.
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