The first full night of finals at the 23rd European Athletics Championships produced a heroic decathlon triumph for Belgium’s cancer survivor Thomas van der Plaetsen. There was also double golds for Britain and Germany, a historic third high jump win for Spain’s Ruth Beitia and many more great performances.
Van der Plaetsen was diagnosed with testicular cancer in November 2014 but after treatment was back in competition by last summer, finishing 14th at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
Here the 25-year-old claimed his first major international title after a stand-out performance in the eighth of the ten events, where he produced his best Championship pole vault of 5.40m to move up from bronze to gold medal position with a total of 6838 points, 46 clear of overnight leader Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine.
A decent rather than spectacular javelin throw of 57.23m increased the Belgian’s lead by 11 points going into the 1500m, where he finished one place ahead of eventual silver medallist Adam Helcelet of the Czech Republic to win with a total of 8218 points and by a margin of 161.
Serbia’s Mihail Dudas was third with 8153.
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Beitia, 37, became the first athlete to win three high jump golds at the European Athletics Championships 15 years after she had won her first major title, at the European Athletics U23 Championships, in the same Amsterdam Olympic Stadium.
She looked transported with quiet joy at the way in which her career had come full circle in this historic sporting environment after securing a third successive European gold by becoming the only jumper to clear 1.98m, with Bulgaria’s Mirela Demireva claiming silver and Lithuania’s Airine Palsyte bronze after 1.96m clearances.
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“It’s incredible,” Beitia said. “This is my third European title and the fact that it’s in Amsterdam makes it double special. In 2001 I won the European under-23 title here.
“This could actually be the perfect way to end my career but I still have one last dream I hope to achieve, which is winning a medal at the Olympics in Rio.”
Britain’s golds came from Dina Asher-Smith in the women’s 200m and Greg Rutherford in the men’s long jump, while Germany provided winners in the women’s shot put and women’s 100m hurdles through Christina Schwanitz and Cindy Roleder.
Twenty-year-old Asher-Smith, who last season became the first British woman to better 11 seconds, won her first senior international title in 22.37 after dominating her race from gun to tape, with 2012 champion Ivet Lalova-Collio taking silver (22.52) and Gina Luckenkemper of Germany claiming bronze (22.74).
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Defending men’s long jump champion Rutherford, who also holds the Olympic, world and Commonwealth titles, was able to complete a British double on the night after producing his winning effort of 8.25m in the fifth round, just as it looked as if the 8.21m achieved in the first round by Sweden’s Michel Torneus , would be enough to prevail.
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Schwanitz, the defending women’s shot put champion, provided an emphatic statement of intent with her first effort of 20.17m, the best in Europe this season and second in the 2016 world lists.
Her dominance was underlined by three more scoring throws, all at least half a metre longer than the best efforts of her opposition as Hungary’s Anita Marton claimed silver with 18.72m and bronze went to Türkiye’s 20-year-old former world youth champion Emel Dereli with 18.22m.
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Roleder produced the best women’s 100m hurdles time in Europe this season (12.62) in finishing clear of Alina Talay of Belarus (12.68) and Britain’s defending champion Tiffany Porter, who took bronze (12.76).
Gold for Germany's Cindy Roleder over 100m hurdles in a European leading 12.62 #ECH2016 pic.twitter.com/d2RxA3XxcH
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 7, 2016
Germany might have expected a hat-trick of titles on the night given the outstanding recent form of their javelin thrower Thomas Röhler, who last week broke 90m for the first time of his career.
But Röhler could do no better than fifth with an effort of 80.78m as Latvia’s Zigismunds Sirmais claimed a surprise victory with a personal best of 86.66m. The Czech Republic’s 2012 European champion and 2013 world champion Vitezslav Vesely earned a second successive European silver with 83.59m. Bronze went to Finland’s Antti Ruuskanen, who reached 82.44m.
Zigismunds Sirmais won a superb javelin gold for Latvia with a PB throw of 86.66m #ECH2016 pic.twitter.com/IXZJY66IeS
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 7, 2016