European Indoors: Dwain record; Farah gold
Eurosport - Sat, 07 Mar 20:30:00 2009
Dwain Chambers set a new European 60m record at the European indoor Championships and fellow Briton Mo Farah took gold in the 3000m in Turin.
Chambers, who missed the Olympic Games despite having served out a two-year drugs ban, improved the previous European best of 6.45 seconds, set by France's Ronald Pognon in Karlsruhe in 2005, by three hundreths.
The British sprinter also clocked the third best time over the distance in history, behind America's Maurice Greene, the world record holder, who ran 6.39 and Andre Cason (6.41)
The 30-year-old is running considerably faster than before he tested positive for the steroid THG in 2003 and served a two-year ban, and is a prohibitive favourite to claim Britain's second gold of the Championships.
"I'm very pleased, it's something that we planned for but not for it to come so soon in the championships," said Chambers, who saw team-mates Craig Pickering and Simeon Williamson also qualify for the final.
"I had hoped for it in the final but I've got to remain cool because I still have another round to go and I want to come home with the gold medal.
"There's talk about a world record but if I finish fifth it's all in vain. I just want to concentrate on trying to win. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
"I was planning for about 6.45 but I've got an added bonus, Christmas has come twice for me. I'm running faster than I've ever done before so it obviously shows what I did four or five years ago didn't work for me."
Just minutes after Chambers' run, Farah powered to victory in seven minutes 40.17 seconds, a new championship record although well outside the British record he has broken twice this year.
"It feels awesome, I've never done it before on the track," said the 25-year-old. "I worked so hard for this after a disappointing year last year and it's not easy sometimes dealing with that.
"I haven't seen much of my family being away so much in Ethiopia and Kenya over Christmas for training but it's definitely paying off.
"I felt extra pressure being favourite, it's all a learning experience for me, I've never been under that pressure. My best tactic was to go hard and it was awesome to have Nick McCormick and Mark Draper in the final too, Mark helped me for the first kilometre. It was a team tactic, we see other people do it so why can't we."
McCormick finished sixth and Draper 11th.
Veteran Donna Fraser, 36, could only finish last in the final of the women's 400m, won by Russia's Antonina Krivoshapka, with Yorkshire's Richard Buck fifth in the men's race behind Swede Johan Wissman.
"It's all part of a learning curve but anyone on a learning curve still wants to succeed," said Buck, 22. "At the moment I'm disappointed but I'm sure there's a lot I can learn from this experience."
Russia's Anna Alminova took the women's 1500 title and compatriot Ivan Ukhov won the men's high jump after clearing 2.32 metres.
Ksenija Balta of Estonia prevailed in the women's long jump and Russian Yuliya Golubchikova took advantage of the absence of compatriot and world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva to win the women's pole vault.
Isinbayeva decided to skip the championships to concentrate on the outdoor season. Kate Dennison was sixth after clearing 4.35m but failing at 4.50m, which would have improved her own British record by four centimetres.
Fabrizio Donato finally gave hosts Italy something to cheer when he took men's triple jump gold with a national record.
His leap of 17.59 metres was also a championship record and the best indoor jump in the world this year.
"When I woke up this morning I felt good. I told myself to go face history," the 32-year-old said at Turin's Lingotto Oval.
Italian medal hopes had earlier been hit when Antonietta Di Martino missed the women's high jump heats with flu. Blanka Vlasic and Ariane Friedrich, who has a cold, easily qualified for the final.
Earlier in the day, Marilyn Okoro and Jenny Meadows qualified for the final of the women's800m but the semi-finals confirmed the British pair face a battle to be among the medals.
Okoro finished second in her race behind Russian Oksana Zbrozhek, the defending champion, while Meadows was third in the second semi behind Ukraine's Tetyana Petlyuk and home favourite Elisa Cusma.
Greg Rutherford qualified for the men's long jump final despite his first attempt of 7.99m - a new personal best - being just one centimetre short of the automatic qualifying standard.
Katrina Wootton also advanced to the final of the women's 3000m as one of the fastest losers after finishing sixth in her heat and Steve Lewis reached the men's pole vault final with an impressive clearance of 5.70m.
Neil Speaight scraped through to the final of the men's 1500m as one of the fastest losers despite finishing sixth in the first heat, but Carl Myerscough failed to reach the men's shot final after a poor opening attempt and two fouls.
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Comment 1 - 9 of 9
There are some very sad people on this site. the rules are the rules, and if they say a person serves a 2 year ban for taking drugs, then that is what happens if someone is caught - not 4 years, not ten years, not life, but 2 years! If punishments are to be more stringent, then the lawmakers must change the laws - however, they can't be changed retrospectively! Chambers cheated, got caught, and served his time. Rather then walking away from the sport though, he has buckled down and worked very very hard - and proved his talent is as good when clean. he has served his time, so those sanctimonious prigs who want to punish him again should keep quiet, or campaign for rule changes. AS an aside, isn't it interesting how many people attack the intelligence of anyone who has a different point of view?
There are some very sad people on this site. the rules are the rules, and if they say a person serves a 2 year ban for taking drugs, then that is what happens if someone is caught - not 4 years, not ten years, not life, but 2 years! If punishments are to be more stringent, then the lawmakers must change the laws - however, they can't be changed retrospectively! Chambers cheated, got caught, and served his time. Rather then walking away from the sport though, he has buckled down and worked very very hard - and proved his talent is as good when clean. he has served his time, so those sanctimonious prigs who want to punish him again should keep quiet, or campaign for rule changes.
Re: Barrie. "Get a life you sad people". Undoubtedly one of the more cretinous statements I have read this year. It is a statement much used by people on this board. Sadly it has absolutely no meaning in the english language whatsoever.
come chambers i think you can break the world record in the final 2day! i know u did wrong in the past but WE'VE paid 4 it now!
get a life you sad people!, he screwed up his own life and paid for it. i for one hope he wins clean and keeps running faster than before (hes earned it the hard way) . killers get a second chance at life and this is only sport for gods sake so get off his back.
Chambers should not be in a GB vest representing his country. I would have more sympathy for him if he had come forward before he was caught and declared he was cheating.There is no way of knowing how much his cheating has helped to improve his performances after he finished.
Chambers has done his time. He's suffered. He is clean now. He did a brilliant 60M in 6.42. Brilliant. Before you get on your high horse, just look at the record books. How many of the womens track world records are valid. Few have any meaning. We slag off the tennis players for doing badly, and Dwain here too for putting up with all the negative press. Good luck to him, if he stays clean. Everyone deserves a 2nd chance.
This man should not be allowed to compete at any level let alone a major championship. He blames everyone and everything for his drug taking, when basically he was a good athlete who wanted a quick route to the medal rostrum, not caring who he dragged down along the way. All athlete know the consequences of cheating even before they reach the international stage. A drug ban should be for life with NO exceptions.
This should be an international agreement.
This man should not be allowed to compete at any level let alone a major championship. He blames everyone and everything for his drug taking, when basically he was a good athlete who wanted a quick route to the medal rostrum, not caring who he dragged down along the way. All athlete know the consequences of cheating even before they reach the international stage. A drug ban should be for life with NO exceptions.
This should be an international agreement.
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