Day Three European Championships (and the Winter Gardens and Design Museum)

For no accountable reason (well apart from coincidence) athletes in certain events come along like buses. None for a while and suddenly several all at once. This is happening to GB at the moment in Long Jump and 400m hurdles (more on those anon) but most surprisingly in men's discus. None of them look world beaters, but are about good enough to get into a European final. Which made the discus qualifying a more interesting event for me than normal. Ultimately a bit disappointing, only one out of three made it through, albeit one great throw from Okoye in the rain, but that was his only good throw and he finished last in the final. Better please at the Olympics.

Long jump qualifying too. More frustration. Greg Rutherford is a genuine medal contender in London, but wasn't out here. Chris Tomlinson can jump very close to him. I really, really wish Chris would do well. He has all the scope to be the pin-up boy of British athletics, and has had for several years now. When first he burst on the scene it was all raw potential and wondering what he could do if he got the technique right. But so often he has just disappointed when it matters. On paper he has good distances, but then flops when the big ones come up. And here we go again. If he got to the final I felt he just might pull out a jump to get a medal. But there is always that IF. And super frustratingly, after a modestly good opener, he couldn't improve and then missed the final by one place in the last round. Grr.

But on the plus side, our number 3, JJ Jagede, got a good jump in and made it.

 

In the end a good night for us. Robbie Grabarz won the High Jump, despite a persistent Lithuanian breaking his PB twice to match him,



Lynsey Sharp burst through to take surprise silver in the women's 800m (oh dear, I remember watching her father, Cameron, run!), and then most exciting of all Rhys Williams (or Rice Williams as the commentator insisted on calling him) won gold in the 400m hurdles. This was impressive as we also got two men in the final, despite leaving our two best hurdlers at home. If there was a 4x400m hurdles relay GB would be a shoo in right now.

 And young Danny Talbot (supposedly our third string 200m runner, but on current form maybe rather better than that), made the 200m final. Known as the Trowbridge Rocket apparently.


Of the foreigners, this young man impressed me, David Storl of Germay who won the Shot. Only 21, and given his nearest rival (Rutger Smith, at the back in photo below) is 9 years older, probably got a lot of medals ahead of him.


Just a little time for sightseeing in the middle today, so I went to the Winter Gardens. Ever so pretty set of terraced gardens with glasshouses at the top.

And then onto the Design Museum, an dthe Museum of Architecture next door. The latter was interesting but rather small. The design museum was nicely laid out, but not exactly a match for the V & A. Finns are very good at modern glass though.

And that still left me enough time for more wandering around on artyehr a nice day.

And the Finns do like their berries. More strawberries than you can shake a stick at.