News Archive

There were no running finals on day one of the European Indoor Championships in

Madrid on Friday night but there was a big surprise: The defending champion at

800 metres, Jolanda Ceplak, is out after the first round. The Slovenian who had

won the European gold medal in Vienna three years ago by breaking the world

record and clocking 1:55,82 minutes was only third in her heat. And her time of

2:05,27 minutes was not enough for qualifying.

I can understand it

“I do not know what happened to me today, I can’t understand it. I

have no injuries at all. I just felt heavy legs. That is the only reason I can

find for this disappointing performance. I feel very disappointed”,

Jolanda Ceplak said.

The Irish is number ne worldwide

Alistair Cragg won his 3,000 m heat in 7:54,91 minutes. He reached the final on

Saturday. Having run already 7:39,89 minutes this season the Irish is number

one worldwide at present. “We will discuss the tactics for the final

later. But that is at least the pace we should be running in the final. I did

not notice that the Spanish guys in this heat, Alves and Jiménez, are

out”, Alistair Cragg said.