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On the final day of the European Indoor Championships in Madrid the Spanish

runners were denied the gold medal they hoped to get. Someone has always been

faster in various finals.

Russian Dimitri Bogdanov won 800 m

At the 800 metres it was Russian Dimitri Bogdanov who won the four lap race in

1:48.61 minutes. Silver and bronze went to Spain: Antonio Manuel Reina was

second in 1:48.76, Juan de Dios Jurado got the bronze with 1:49.11. So for

Russia Dimitri Bogdanow was a perfect replacement of Juri Borsakovski. The

Olympic Champion, who leads this year’s world indoor list although

clocking only 1:46.10, had decided not to go to Madrid.

„It went the way I had wished. I wanted to come out of the final bend

with much speed. That worked well although I had a lot of respect of

Reina”, the 25-year-old gold medal winner said. Bogdanov, who could not

qualify for the second round at the Olympics in Athens, is a training partner

of Borsakovski.

Three Spaniards could not win

In the 1,500 m final three Spaniards were chasing Ivan Heshko. But there was no

way beating the Ukrainian. Heshko won the gold in a championship’s record

time of 3:36.70 minutes. He was followed by the three Spaniards: Juan Carlos

Higuero was second in 3:37.98 minutes while Reyes Estévez (3:38.90) just

snatched a bronze medal. Fourth was Arturo Casado (3:38.94). So it was the

second bronze medal for Estévez after the 3,000 m a day earlier.

“I am proud to have won two medals here”, Estévez said.

In summer 3:28 or 3:29

“I had thought about two different tactics. In the end I decided to make

it a fast race instead of relying on my finishing speed”, Ivan Heshko

said. The 25-year-old had already won a bronze medal in the IAAF World

Championships in Paris in 2003. “In the summer I want to improve to 3:28

or 3:29 minutes”, Heshko said. “I had hoped that Hesho would get

tired after starting so fast, but that did not happen”, Juan Carlos

Higuero said.

Gold Medal with 34

At the age of 34 Larisa Shao won her first big medal. The Russian took the 800

m gold in a time of 1:59.97 minutes. The crowd had of course supported Maite

Martínez of Spain who finished second in 2:00.52. Natalya Tsyganova

(Russia/2:01.62) was third. “I wanted to be at front in the last part of

the race”, Larisa Shao said. On the home straight she managed to defend

her lead against Maite Martinez. “I now want to improve my outdoor

best”, Shao said. This stands a 1:58.71 minutes at present. Title holder

Jolanda Ceplak had been out in the first round sensationally.

The Britain had started as a favourite

Lidia Chojecka (Poland) had come to Madrid as the leading 1,500 m runner of the

season (4:04.84 minutes). But she voted to run the 3,000 m instead. And that

was probably a wise decision. Chojecka stormed to victory in 8:43.76 minutes.

At first Jo Pavey had controlled the race and set a quick pace. The Britain had

started as a favourite, but she could not get rid of her rivals. She had passed

1,000 m in 2:56.61 and was still in the lead at 2,000 m (5:54.83). But then, in

the last part of the race, she slowed a lot. And when she was passed and saw

that she would not have a chance to get a medal she even dropped out. Silver

went to Tezeta Desalegn-Dengersa (Turkey/8:46.65), while Susanne Pumper

(Austria) snatched a bronze (8:47,74). She was just two hundredth of a second

ahead of Sabrina Mockenhaupt (Germany).