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SAÚDA O NOSSO CAMPEÃO
Francis Obikwelu renovou hoje o título europeu dos 100 metros, ao vencer a final em Gotemburgo com o tempo de 9.99 segundos (vento favorável 1,3 m/s), novo recorde dos campeonatos.
O português de origem nigeriana, de 27 anos, foi seguido por Andrey Yepishin (10.10) e por Matic Osovnikar (10.14), que bateram os recordes nacionais da Rússia e da Eslovénia, respectivamente.
OBIKWELU, CAMPEÃO DO MUNDO DE 100 METROS
No site da EAA EUROPEAN ATHLETITCS pode-se lêr o estrondo da vitória de OBIKWELU
.Obikwelu claims his 'own' gold
08 August 2006
For the fourth time at these championships Francis Obikwelu got a shockingly poor start. This time, though, it was the final of the men's European Athletics Championships 100m at Göteborg's Ullevi Stadium.
But for the fourth time in two days, the defending champion was able to turn on the afterburners to power past his opponents in the second half of the race and secure his second European 100m title.
Obikwelu, a champion in name only until tonight, has at last won a major title. Previously, he has finished second in both 100m and 200m at the Europeans in 2002, and he took the Olympic 100m silver behind Justin Gatlin in Athens in 2004.
"The title means a lot to me," said the 27-year-old. "I was No1 in Europe all year and now I have the gold. After silver in Munich, I wanted this so badly."
Obikwelu was awarded the 2002 title only this year after Britain's Dwain Chambers admitted that he had been taking banned drugs when he won the final in Munich. The Portuguese sprinter's victory here tonight means he follows three-time winners Linford Christie and Valeriy Borzov as the only men to defend the European 100m title - although there is little chance that he will see it that way.
"In my head it is still the silver medal I won in Munich," he said. "But now I have my own European gold medal."
And he took it in some style, sweeping past his rivals in the Göteborg rain to cross the line in 9.99sec, a championship record and the first sub-10 legal victory ever at a European Athletics Championships. It was also the fastest run this year by any European.
"It is very important to me to have run under 10 seconds," said Obikwelu. "Without the rain I could have run even faster."
Behind Obikwelu, two men in the form of their lives snatched the silver and bronze medals from more fancied opponents. Andrey Yepishin, who had signalled his intentions when he ran the fastest time in the semi-finals earlier this evening, eclipsed the Russian national record with 10.10 in second, while Matic Osovnikar cut his own Slovenian record to 10.14 to take the bronze.
Yepishin thus became only the second man in a Russian vest to win a sprinting medal at these championships, following Aleksandr Porkhomovskiy's 100m bronze in 1994. Osovnikar's bronze was Slovenia's first ever by a man at a European Athletics Championships, and only the fourth medal ever by any Slovenian.
Obikwelu was the class of the field, but the battle for the minor medals was desperately close as just 0.06sec separated the men in places two to five. The unlucky men were France's Ronald Pognon in fourth and Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis in fifth, both of whom clocked 10.16 (a season's best for Lewis-Francis) but missed out on medals by 0.02sec.
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