European Championships – Strong in the Field

For a track nut like me, watching the European Championships was a real treat. The competition was fierce with most events going right down to the wire to separate contestants. Second through fifth in the men’s 100 all clocked 10.18. Only .01 separated first and second in the men’s 200. Second through sixth in the men’s 400 were covered by only .07. Similar in the field where second through ninth in the men’s high jump all cleared 2.26 (7’ 5”)! So from a competitive stand point, it was perhaps the best meet of the year – because here was a meet full of drama and excitement from beginning to end. Which may explain in part why Europeans are so rabid about the sport.

Another reason may be the commentary. While watching European meets on the screen of my computer does not visually compare with watching them on my flat screen high definition television, the commentary is unparalleled. The commentators really know their stuff when it comes to track and field. They don’t over hype or over talk the events and there are no comparisons between track and other sports – no football 40’s. The time is not filled with “up close and personal” stories either. Instead there are lots of replays, with critical angles. Solid interviews with winners and losers. And for the most part they let the competition tell the story. I was drawn to my computer to watch all week and weekend, and American broadcasters could learn much from their European counterparts. But back to the competition.

I know that some have lamented the “results” that came from this meet as not being up to par with the rest of the world, but I’m going to disagree. Here’s why. On the field this meet the results were stellar. Look at some of these winners:

Event	Competitor	Country	Mark
Men’s PV	Renaurd Lavillenie	France	19’ 2.25”
Men’s LJ	Christian Reif	Germany	27’ 9.5”
Men’s TJ	Phillips Idowu	Great Britain	58’ 5.25”
Men’s Discus	Piotr Malachoski	Poland	225’ 11”
Men’s Javelin	Andreas Thorkildsen	Norway	289’ 11”
Women’s HJ	Blanka Vlasic	Croatia	6’ 8”
Women’s PV	Svetlana Feofanova	Russia	15’ 7”
Women’s TJ	Olha Saladuha	Ukraine	48’ 7.25”
Women’s Hammer	Betty Heidler	Germany	250’ 7”
Women’s Javelin	Linda Stahl	Germany	219’ 2”

Some very outstanding marks! The issue isn’t that Europe has fallen behind in the sport, because they are the world’s leaders when it comes to the field. The real issue is that the world has become fragmentally specialized when it comes to track and field. The Caribbean nations have become very strong in the sprints – but they produce almost nothing above 400 meters, and little on the field. In contrast the African nations are stellar in everything on the track above 400 meters – but they have virtually nothing in the sprints and little in the field. South America seems to be producing jumpers with a bit of sprinting and hurdling sprinkled in. The Asian countries seem to be in a state of development overall. And here in North America it’s somewhat of a hodge podge as to what we (US) and Canada produce. We are known for sprinters and hurdlers, once known for jumpers, and are resurging in the distances – but we seem to always come up with shot putters.

So what you have is Usain Bolt in Jamaica, but nothing approaching Kenya’s David Rudisha. Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) & Sentayehu Ejigu (ETH) in African but nothing close to Veronica Campbell Brown (JAM) & Allyson Felix (USA). In short it takes the entire world to put on a stellar meet from top to bottom in terms of results. Gone are the days when a handful of “super powers” ruled the sport. Small nations like Spain, Turkey, Jamaica and Croatia (to name but a few) are just as able to produce medal winners and big names as the US, Russia, and Germany (previous super powers).

Of course we still expect more from some countries than others. I still feel that we (the US) should still be able to garner more medals in majors than other countries, and than we have in recent competitions. We are larger, we have more resources, and we should do a better job in terms of athlete and program development.  That said, the talent dispersal in this sport is wider globally than its ever been. Look no further than the European Championships where all manner of countries were able to take to the medal podium.

It was a great meet. A very exciting meet. We saw our main competition in the field on display, and lots of up and comers on the track. Mo Farah (GBR) is going to challenge us against the Africans for distance medals. Christophe Lemaitre (FRA) is going to keep someone out of a sprint final next year. The European sprint relay squads CAN PASS the baton. The Europeans will be ready in Daegu, we will have to be on our “A” game as well.