Events & Meetings

Chojecka does the double in Birmingham

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Chojecka does the double in Birmingham

23rd February 2017 02:39

It is just eight days until the start of the European Athletics Indoor Championships and as part of our extensive coverage, we are looking back on some of the great moments from its glorious history.

A select group of athletes had won both 1500m and 3000m titles in the past but Lidia Chojecka created history at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships by becoming the first runner - male or female - to win both events at the same championships.

Chojecka had been one of the most consistent middle distance runners in Europe throughout the 1990s. The Pole had finished fifth and sixth in back-to-back Olympic 1500m finals and claimed a global medal as far back as the 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Paris where she picked up a bronze.

But at 30, Chojecka was in her prime on the boards in Birmingham. Chojecka had the beating of the Russians over 1500m on the second day of the championships before outsprinting two-time European 5000m champion Marta Dominguez - renowned for her prowess in championship racing - to defend her 3000m title the following day.

Chojecka didn’t pick up any senior medals outdoors but her indoor record has to be respected. She won nine medals in the space of fourteen years and fittingly, her last medal - silver over 3000m in 2011 - came on the same track in Paris where she won her first medal back in 1997.

No athlete has since won both titles at the same championships but with the removal of 3000m heats from the programme in Belgrade, Laura Muir will undoubtedly be aiming to follow suit.

Results:

1500m

1. Lidia Chojecka (POL) 4:05.13

2. Natalya Panteleyeva (RUS) 4:06.04

3. Olesya Mikheyeva (RUS) 4:06.48

3000m

1. Lidia Chojecka (POL) 8:43.25

2. Marta Dominguez (ESP) 8:44.40

3. Silvia Weissteiner (ITA) 8:44.81

Top 3 from Prague 2015:

1500m

1. Sifan Hassan (NED) 4:09.04