European Championships Highlights August 19 – Day 9 of competition – Munich 2022

Triple jumper Neele Eckhardt-Noack was only two centimeters short of a medal in Munich. The 30-year-old, who was the best in qualifying with a personal best of 14.53 meters, was unable to improve again on Friday evening in Munich’s Olympic Stadium. With 14.43 meters, she was fourth by a hair’s breadth behind the Israeli Hanna Minenko from Israel. The title went to the Ukrainian Maryna Bech-Romantschuk with the European annual best of 15.02 meters

Athletics star Karsten Warholm secured gold in the 400m hurdles and broke Harald Schmid’s 40-year-old European Championship record. The Norwegian successfully defended his Berlin 2018 title in 47.12 seconds in front of Frenchman Wilfried Happio (48.56) and Yasmani Copello (Turkey/48.78) in the Munich Olympic Stadium. Joshua Abuaku missed a medal in fifth place by a hundredth, the man from Frankfurt ran a personal best of 48.79 seconds.

Alexandra Burghardt only finished eighth and last in the 200-meter final of the European Athletics Championships. The 28-year-old from Burghausen and third in the World Championships in the sprint relay crossed the finish line in 23.24 seconds. Mujinga Kamundji from Switzerland became the new European champion in 22.32 seconds. She had won silver in the 100 meters. Defending champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain was third in 22.43 seconds.

Joshua Hartmann was the first German finalist to finish fifth in the 200m in over three decades. The 23-year-old from ASV Köln was 20.50 seconds faster than his personal best of 20.33, which he had set in the semi-finals, on Friday in Munich’s Olympic Stadium. But even then there would have been no medal. The title went to the European Championships runner-up over 100 meters, Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain, who needed 20.07 seconds. Compatriot Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake was a tenth of a second slower. Bronze went to Italian relay Olympic champion Filippo Tortu from Italy.

Hanna Klein and local hero Katharina Trost missed a surprise in the 1500m final. When the Scot Laura Muir (4:01.08) won the favourite, Klein (Tübingen) took fifth place in 4:05.49 minutes, almost two seconds short of the podium. Trost finished tenth in the Munich Olympic Stadium (4:06.95). Ireland’s Ciara Mageean (4:02.56) secured silver ahead of Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui (4:03.59), fifth in the World Championships. The fastest of the year, Muir, picked up the pace one lap before the end and easily won the race.

Finland’s Topi Raitanen has won European Championship gold in the 3000m steeplechase, ending France’s winning streak at European level. The 26-year-old beat the Italians Ahmed Abdelwahed (8:22.35) and Osama Zoghlami (8:23.44) in 8:21.80 minutes in Munich’s Olympic Stadium on Friday evening. Karl Bebendorf from Dresden took a strong fifth place in 8:26.49 minutes. “The early fights for positions took a lot of strength. That wasn’t my ideal tactic, but it was very instructive,” he said on ZDF. As expected, Niklas Buchholz (Höchstadt/Aisch) played no role in the fight for the medals in 14th place at his European Championship premiere.

Carolina Krafzik missed out on a possible 400m hurdles podium finish at the final obstacle. When the Dutch Vice World Champion Femke Bol (52.67) won, the Sindelfingen native had good prospects in the race for a long time, but ended up eighth in 56.02 seconds. The Ukrainian Wiktorija Tkatschuk (54.30) won silver ahead of her compatriot Hanna Ryschykowa (54.86).

Henrik Janssen (Magdeburg) only played a supporting role in the European Championship decision in the discus throw. The 24-year-old missed the final by around two meters on Friday evening with 61.11 m and finished tenth. The Lithuanian Mykolas Alekna secured the title with a championship record (69.78) ahead of the Slovenian world champion Kristjan Ceh (68.28) and the British Lawrence Okoye (67.14).

Kayak foursome wins first title The German kayak foursome (K4) brought the German Canoe Association (DKV) their first title at the European Championships in Munich in the very first final run. The quartet around two-time Olympic champion Tom Liebscher won the non-Olympic distance of 1000 meters with a lead of less than half a second on the Spanish boat. Bronze went to Hungary, two and a half seconds back.

Three-time Olympic champion Sebastian Brendel has won his first title. Together with his Canadian partner Tim Hecker, the 34-year-old won the final over 1000 meters with a lead of more than a second in front of the Italian boat of Nicolae Craciun and Daniele Santini. Bronze went to Balazs Adolf and Daniel Fejes from Hungary.

The Berliner Jacob Schopf surprisingly won the title in the kayak single. The 23-year-old crossed the finish line on the regatta course in Oberschleißheim after 500 meters with a lead of 0.225 seconds over the second-placed Hungarian Adam Varga. Bronze went to Portugal’s Fernando Pimmenta (0.791s back).

Timo Boll and Dimitrij Ovtcharov have taken the next step towards the finals at the European Table Tennis Championships in Munich. Record winner Boll easily won his round of 16 against Slovakian Wang Yang 4:0. Olympic bronze medalist Ovtcharov narrowly beat Portuguese Marcos Freitas 4:3. Dang Qiu is also in the top eight on Saturday.

The German table tennis women have already secured three medals. Nina Mittelham won 4:3 against the Frenchwoman Yuan Jianan and meets Shan Xiaona in the semifinals on Saturday, who had won 4:3 against the Portuguese Shao Jieni. Sabine Winter surprisingly defeated the Italian Giorgia Piccolin 4:0 and is also in the semifinals on Saturday against the Austrian Sofia Polcanova.

For the German beach volleyball players, the dream of a medal at the home European Championships in Munich has come to an end. Karla Borger and Julia Sude as well as Chantal Laboreur and Sarah Schulz each failed in the quarterfinals. Borger/Sude lost 0:2 (18:21, 18:21) against Tina Graudina/Anastasija Kravcenoka from Latvia. Laboureur/Schulz lost 2-0 to the defending champions Tanja Hüberli/Nina Brunner (Switzerland).

Meanwhile, the German beach volleyball players Nils Ehlers and Clemens Wickler have reached the quarter-finals. The duo prevailed in the round of 16 against the Swiss Marco Krattiger and Florian Breer after an exciting exchange of blows in the second set with 2:0 (21:15, 32:30). The Hamburg duo will compete in the round of the top eight on Saturday.

The German mountain bikers missed the hoped-for medal at the European Championship race in Munich. After 34.9 km on the circuit at and on the Olympiaberg, Luca Schwarzbauer, who was driving strong for a long time, was 34 seconds off the podium in tenth place. After catching up from grid position 36 and a dominant performance halfway through the race, Olympic champion Thomas Pidcock (Great Britain) won the title.