Host nation beat Italy by 2.5 points as Britain finish third after baton fumble in men’s 4x400m

The European Team Championships is always certain to produce drama and the 2021 event in Poland was no different. After two days of ups and downs, an understrength host nation managed to successfully defend its title after holding off a strong finish from Italy. After having led at the end of the first day, Great Britain and Northern Ireland wound up third, but only after failing to finish the final event, the men’s 4x400m, due to a fumbled baton exchange.

Poland were missing a number of their strongest athletes such as sprinter Ewa Swoboda, pole vaulter Piotr Lisek and middle-distance men Adam Kszczot and Marcin Lewandowski. Few teams in the history of this competition have ever been able to field full-strength squads, though. It is often a case of second and third-string athletes rising to the occasion.

Of course, Poland still had plenty of great athletes available. Most impressively, Pawel Fajdek threw a championship record of 82.98m in the hammer to win by almost six metres. 

After her 100m victory the previous day, rising Polish star Pia Skrzyszowska was an impressive winner of the women’s sprint hurdles in 12.99 (-0.1). Such was the standard of this event, Britain’s Alicia Barrett ran a season’s best of 13.42 but was only sixth.

To read our day one report, click here

On the second day of this two-day biennial competition, Robert Sobera took the pole vault for the host nation as well with 5.65m as Britain’s Harry Coppell cleared 5.55m for second place.

Pure joy! ?

Kamila Licwinko ?? wins the women's high jump on home soil for hosts Poland in Silesia with a 1.94m clearance. ?#ETCH2021 pic.twitter.com/9mHNlufadJ

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) May 30, 2021

Kamila Liciwinko gave Poland top points in the women’s high jump too with 1.94m as she beat Italy’s Alessia Trost, who cleared 1.91m, while Emily Borthwick was third for Britain with 1.88m.

In addition, the Polish women secured full points in the women’s 4x400m as they clocked 3:26.37 ahead of Britain and Italy.

As for the Brits, Jake Wightman, the captain of the British team, led by example with a commanding victory in 1:45.71 with Mariano Garcia of Spain second in 1:46.45.

Maximum points on the track for Great Britain…again! @JakeSWightman was a commanding winner of the men's 800m in Silesia. ?#ETCH2021 pic.twitter.com/Q4z7TKwn0p

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) May 30, 2021

Wightman said: “The only real aim was to win it. After putting ourselves top of the leader board after day one, I knew I had to do my bit to keep us there. So to get the full points is big for me.

“Every athlete who has earned their first senior vest this weekend should be very proud of their performance. They’ve all given 100% and that is all you can do. It’s great having the team environment, there’s no medals individually, so to be competing for one another is very rare and I feel like everyone is making the most of that.”

Lawrence Okoye’s comeback as a discus thrower continues to pick up pace following his spell playing American Football in the United States.

The big Briton scored full points with 64.22m as Poland’s Robert Urbanek was second with 62.57m and David Wrobel of Germany third with 61.52m.

“It was a good effort in challenging conditions,” he said. “There was a lot of rain before our event today so it made the circle very slippery so I had to throw in trainers today to counteract that. 

“I think it was a good and mature performance today. I just wanted to make sure I got as many points as possible for the team. 

“I had a reasonable opener considering. I was leading throughout the competition after that opener. I managed to extend it at the end which is a sign that I’m focusing on what I am doing. It was always going to be difficult to throw far in these conditions so I’m happy with the result.”

He added: “There were some top throwers here. We’ve got world medallists and guys ranked in the top five in the world so I think it bodes well for me going forward. It’s the kind of thing I need to prepare for the Olympics.”

Beth Dobbin scored full points for Britain on day two with a 22.78 (0.6) season’s best in the 200m as she beat Dalia Kaddari of Italy to the line.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be that quick because when we were in the blocks I could just feel the rain hitting the back of my neck, it was so grim,” she said. “But I absolutely went for it and fought to the end, I cannot ask for any more.”

.@BethDobbin ?? contributes maximum points to the British team tally with victory in the women's 200m in Silesia! ?#ETCH2021 pic.twitter.com/IJWz9xxGxP

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) May 30, 2021

As with the first day of the competition, it was once again a German javelin thrower who set the individual performance of the day on Sunday. European champion Christin Hussong threw a championship record of 69.19m in the javelin and moved up to No.8 on the world all-time rankings.

READ MORE: Johannes Vetter unleashes monster throw at Euro Team Champs

Also for Germany, Maryse Luzolo long jumped 6.61m (-0.7) for maximum points from Poland’s Maddalena Zebrowska’s 6.55m.

Max Hess of Germany took the men’s triple jump with 17.13m (-0.7) as he beat the favourite, Pedro Pablo Pichardo – the Portuguese athlete jumping 17.01m in second.

Sara Gambetta gave Germany a victory in the women’s shot as well with 18.75m as European indoor champion Auriol Dongmo of Portugal was second with 18.74m.

Dongmo and Pichardo were Portugal’s big hopes but the weakest team in this Super League division did strike a win elsewhere with Isaac Nader running 8:31.26 to win a slow men’s 3000m.

Spain tasted some victories as well. Asier Martinez clocked 13.43 (-0.3) in the men’s 110m hurdles as Britain’s David King was runner-up with 13.63.

Enjoying a fine second day, Spain also won the men’s steeplechase with Fernando Carro clocking 8:39.67 to beat France’s Mehdi Belhadj.

Italy, however, were a revelation on the second day.

They nearly beat Poland to the title after individual victories from Nadia Battocletti in the women’s 5000m, Gaia Sabbatini in the women’s 1500m and Eseosa Desalu in the men’s 200m.

Battocletti clocked 15:46.95 to win comfortably from Blanca Fernandez of Spain, while Desalu ran 20.48 (-1.0) to beat Jesus Gomez of Spain. Sabbatini, meanwhile, ran 4:14.87 to take the women’s metric mile.

The strong finish from the Italians was demonstrated in the last event on the programme, the men’s 4x400m, as they took victory in 3:02.64 from Spain and Poland as the GB team failed to finish after anchorman Rabah Yousif was unable to take the baton from third-leg athlete Michael Ohioze.

Final standings
Poland 181.5
Italy 179
GB & NI 174
Germany 171
Spain 167
France 140
Portugal 97.5

For full results, see here