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Key events
“Super sweet … this team is incredible,” says Jeremiah Azu. “We are in a great place.”
“We knew once we were in the finals, we’d bring it,” says Zharnell Hughes. “I could feel the energy …
“I said to Romell, you best run bro! And he ran!”
Gold for GB in the men's 4x100!
Romell Glave brings it home in 38.45sec for the home team, the favourites, and deservedly so!
Zharnell Hughes looked to be celebrating when he handed the baton to Glave for the final leg. Jeremiah Azu ran the first leg, Louie Hinchliffe the second.
Germany were second, Belgium third.
It’s business time … the men’s 4x100 relay is here.
Andreas Almgren and team are loving life after his win for Sweden in the men’s 10,000m. An incredible run it was, too.
Nearly time for the men’s 4x100m relay final. Always a bit of fun.
Gold for Weber in the men's javelin
He’s broken Steve Backley’s long-standing European record with a throw of 90.40m.
Nick Thumm, Weber’s teammate, had one last attempt … but it looks like he got injured on the run-up. He has a little lie-down after throwing the javelin a little way in front of him.
Julian Weber of Germany lobs a javelin 90.40m! Wow!
They were struggling to reach 80m and then Weber produced something ridiculous.
A great bronze medal for Andrew Coscoran of Ireland, surging past Heyward at the last. Pihlström looks truly delighted with silver.
“I thought I was in a perfect spot with 150m to go,” says Wightman. “Frustrating, I gave it a go, it just wasn’t there tonight.
“I just popped on that home straight. It’s frustrating, it was a great opportunity in front of a home crowd there.”
Gold for Nillessen in the men's 1,500m!
Wightman and Heyward were leading on the turn into the home straight … but Nillessen roared home. Pihlström (Sweden) second, Coscoran (Ireland) third. GB in fourth, fifth and sixth: Heyward, Ludewick, Wightman.
Lining up for the men’s 1,500m final now. Arlo Ludewick runs for Great Britain, alongside the two Jakes, Wightman and Heyward.
Morgan Lake has cleared 1.88m in the women’s high jump and is in with a shout of a medal.
Coming up, the men’s 1,500m: on the card for 9.07pm UK time.
Gold for Almgren in the men's 10,000m
It’s a time of 27min 23.44sec, a championship record. That was a phenomenal performance. “Utterly, utterly dominant,” says Cotter on the BBC.
This is a slicker running performance than that of Leo Neugebauer, who collapsed over the line in the final event of the decathlon to claim gold. (It was of course a sensational all-round display.)
Almgren is through 9,000m! Lobalu is clear in silver medal position. This is glory for Sweden barring disasters.
Andrew Cotter helpfully explains, for anyone who’s just switched on, that the group Almgren is with have all been lapped.
Almgren is lapping a massive group of rivals. Well, “rivals” is pushing it at this stage. This is a quite incredible run. He’s through 8,5000m.
Almgren is punishing everyone here… Dominic Lobalu of Switzerland, the defending champion, tries to stay with him … but he’s out on his own now. He’s covered 7,500m. He is lapping people. Others have dropped out. If Almgren stays calm and paces this right from here, he is champion.
Mike Foppen (Netherlands) throws in the towel in the men’s 10,000m. They are through 6,000m. Almgren continues to lead, he is setting an aggressive pace.
A few moments ago, Andy Díaz of Italy looked to have broken Jonathan Edwards’s triple jump record of 18.29m, that has stood for 31 years. But he overstepped and the jump is fouled.
Foppen, Crippa, Gressier, Lobalu are in places 2-5 in the men’s 10,000m
Andreas Almgren of Sweden is setting the pace in the men’s 10,000m.
The race is split into three distinct groups.
The events still to come below. Amy Hunt will run again, alongside her 4x100m relay teammates, at 9.48pm. Jake Wightman and Jake Heyward will both go for the men’s 1,500m at 9.07pm.
9.07pm Men’s 1,500m (final)
9.33pm Men’s 4x100 relay (final)
9.48pm Women’s 4x100 relay (final)
And here we go with the men’s 10,000m
“Glad to see Wigfield running on Saturday night,” emails Tony.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson speaks to the BBC. She finished last in the women’s heptathlon
“It’s far from my best … but in a way … I finished, it’s not easy to come into a competition not in shape. It was important for me that I finished. I wanted to do it for the team behind me … because we fought so hard to be here … I’ve been coming here for a long time and it’s been great to experience this stadium at full capacity again.
“I am thinking of the future. I want to be competitive … this year was definitely a bit different in terms of my preparation for training … but I’ve still got sand behind my nails, my body’s still warm: I want to be in the moment. The hunger is definitely still there, and I love this event so much.”
The gold-medal events are going to come thick and fast now. The men’s javelin and the women’s high jump have already begun: the men’s triple jump competitors are being introduced now.
It’s rare to see a victory that dominant in an elite sprint event. Jaeger left the rest of the field trailing down the straight: a phenomenal performance.
Gold for Jaeger in the women's 400m
A truly dominant win by the Norwegian, in 49.04sec. She’s a full second clear of Natalia Bukowiecka, of Poland, in second (50.04sec). Lieke Klaver takes bronze (50.15sec).
Here comes the women’s 400m final …
Keeley Hodgkinson is chatting to the BBC after last night’s silver medal in the women’s 800m final. Audrey Werro of Switzerland took gold.
“I wanted to defend my title. It would have meant so much to do it on home soil, that would have meant a lot. Upon reflection I am very happy with the race. I think it was a great race. Those kind of races make me so excited to be a part of, to be involved … I was there the entire way, all the way down to the wire … I think it’s a very exciting time for the women’s 800. On another day, I might have taken the gold, we’ll never know.”
Anning out of women's 400m final with injury
Sad news, Amber Anning will miss the women’s 400m final, having picked up an injury at the last minute.
She was just pictured on the BBC sitting adjacent to the track, understandably looking devastated.
One gold and out for me, Luke is back.
O'Connor wins heptathlon gold!
O’Connor tracked Oosterwegel all the way round and looked pretty comfortable even as the Dutchwoman pulled away in the last 50m. Some performance from Irishwoman and she’s had a hell of a summer, Commonwealth and now European champion! Oosterwegel claims silver and Dokter bronze.
Now we have the A race, O’Connor going in this one with gold on the line.
Johnson-Thompson crosses the line last but with a smile on her face. The Czech athlete Adéla Tkáčová finished first in that race with a time of 2mins 12secs-ish.
We’re live on the track for the first of the heptathlon 800m races. Katerina Johnson-Thompson, who is way down in the standings, is in this one. We’re long removed from when KJT would dominate this race and now she’s with the B final on what feels like a farewell event.
Missed in that recap, was the long jump. Newly-minted Commonwealth Games champion Jazz Sawyers booked a spot in the women’s long jump final tomorow, with a first-time effort of 6.90m, fourth overall from qualification, and will be joined by fellow Briton Molly Palmer, who booked a spot with a 6.72m effort.
Early session recap
Amy Hunt’s quest for four golds in Birmingham remains on track after Great Britain qualified for the women’s 4x100m relay final from Saturday morning’s heats.
The British quartet of Kristal Ama-Awuah, Hunt, Success Eduan and Imani-Lara Lansiquot finished second in heat one, 0.15 seconds slower than the Italians, who finished in 42.22 seconds.
Hunt, the world 200m silver medallist, completed a European sprint double earlier this week, and the addition of a mixed 4x100m relay at these championships means the ambitious 24-year-old has a shot at an unprecedented British quadruple in a single European championships.
Team GB will have two cracks at relay gold after Jeremiah Azu, Louie Hinchliffe, Zharnel Hughes and Romell Glave also booked a spot in the men’s 4x100m final fastest from heat one in 38.29s.
Georgia Hunter Bell, sporting sunglasses like training partner Keely Hodgkinson had done in her heat, breezed through to Sunday’s 1500m final fastest from her heat.
Scotland’s Laura Muir, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist, did not qualify, later telling the BBC she recently hurt her ankle, and could only run properly around a bend for the first time on Friday.
Reporting courtesy of PA Media
Evening all, we’re coming firing out of the gate with this evening’s session. The top of the women’s heptathlon is tighter than than tight. With Ireland’s Kate O’Connor’s points total after six events is just 51 points clear of Dutch rival Emma Oosterwegel in second. World Indoor champion Sofie Dokter, also of the Netherlands, is third and 71 points adrift of the Irishwoman. O’Connor must finish within 3.5secs of Oosterwegel and 4.9secs of Dokter. O’Connor’s PB in the 800m is around a second behind Oosterwegel, but Dokter has not gone under 2mins 10secs.
Tom Bassam is stepping in for an hour.
Women's heptathlon standings: top five
Kate O’Connor (Ireland) 5,812pts
Emma Oosterwegel (Netherlands) 5,761pts
Sofie Dokter (Netherlands) 5,741pts
Annik Kälin (Switzerland) 5,707pts
Sophie Weißenberg (Germany) 5,689pts
Sean Ingle
Mystery surrounds a highly regarded British Athletics coach who has not been heard from since visiting Morocco around two months ago.
Leon Baptiste, 41, who coaches a number of elite athletes including the Paris Olympic 4x400m relay bronze medallist Charlie Dobson, is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with some close friends for a stag do or golf trip.
However, he has not been heard from since by his athletes or the UK Athletics officials who pay him as a Loughborough-based consultant, with messages to his phone not returned.
And that’s final …
What are you most looking forward to this evening? Feel free to send me an email.
Saturday schedule (all times UK)
7.45pm Women’s 800m heptathlon (final)
8.01pm Men’s javelin (final)
8.07pm Women’s high jump (final)
8.10pm Women’s 400m (final)
8.17pm Men’s triple jump (final)
8.25pm Men’s 10,000m (final)
9.07pm Men’s 1,500m (final)
9.33pm Men’s 4x100 relay (final)
9.48pm Women’s 4x100 relay (final)
When Audrey Werro was a child, she was so painfully shy that her father told her she had to become a lion every time she raced. In a European women’s 800m final for the ages, she followed that advice to the letter.
As the 22-year-old Swiss superstar came around the final bend, she could feel Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson on her shoulder, waiting to strike. The Dutch flyer Femke Broeders-Bol was also close enough to dream too. But Werro was ready to flash her teeth.
It didn’t matter that she had been spiked by Broeders-Bol after 200m. Or that she had led the pack into the face of a swirling wind for most of the race. She didn’t succumb. She roared.
And just in case you missed Sean’s report from last night …
Hodgkinson would like to ‘stretch myself three more inches’
Keely Hodgkinson has been reflecting on her narrow defeat by Audrey Werro in the women’s 800m on Friday with the British press, including the Guardian’s Sean Ingle, and foresees more showdowns with the Swiss and Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands:
“This rivalry could be epic now, couldn’t it? In Budapest, Beijing, LA, the three of you …
“Yeah. Every year we definitely had like new people come out. I always say every year there’s always someone. Someone makes an appearance, but yeah, I just got to go to training, keep doing what I’m doing, and just hope that it’s enough.”
Does that fuel your fire when you lose something like that? Does it make you even more determined in training? Does it make you even more hungry?
“Yeah, definitely. It definitely does. I’ve been very motivated in training, and I do feel overall that like that race, I do feel like I’m better than that. But you know, she [Werro] was two-tenths ahead of me. Stockholm was four, so you could say the gap closed a little bit. But yeah, I don’t think I did anything wrong. It is what it is.”
We’ve had these eras in your sort of event, where we’ve had two or three, like Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, chasing records, chasing medals. They’re quite different to you. They’re both giants compared to you.
“Yeah, I think one thing that does frustrate me a little bit is everyone like: ‘Oh, this person runs like this, and this person’s really tall, and Keely’s really small, da-da-da.’ You don’t say that to Faith Kipyegon. Ain’t none of you calling us small, so why call me small?”
They are very tall!
“They are, they are, but I can’t do anything about my height! Or the length of my legs.”
They are different athletes, so you’ve got different strengths and weaknesses.
“Yeah, yeah. If I could stretch myself three more inches, I definitely would. But yeah, I back myself completely. I think we’ll always be compared and what they can do, what I can do. Everyone’s got different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s all about each of us figuring out how to run our best 800 and then doing it against each other; that is like the hard part, and you just hope it goes your way on the day. But that makes it really exciting. I think the crowd really enjoyed it. I think everyone was talking about it, and I’m just happy to be able to be a part of it.”
Now for something from our chief sports reporter, Sean Ingle …
Preamble
The hits keep on coming at the European Athletics Championships: nine gold medals will be handed out on the penultimate evening of competition in Birmingham.
Kate O’Connor is well placed to seal women’s heptathlon glory in the 800m from 7.45pm UK time, with Josh Wightman running in the men’s 1,500m final, scheduled for 9.07pm. For the men’s and women’s 4x100 relays, the last two events on the bill at 9.33pm and 9.48pm respectively, fans will definitely be out of their seats.
But everything is high stakes: everything on the schedule has “FINAL” written next to it. The men’s javelin, women’s high jump, women’s 400m, men’s triple jump and men’s 10,00m are all on the menu, too.
Let’s get ready to rumble.
