Europe looks to extend strong season at Continental Cup in Croatia
Team Europe is expecting a strong start in the Continental Cup in Split, Coratia tomorrow. The competition formally known as the IAAF World Cup will pit four continental teams against one another in a worldwide event to determine who sports the best athletes.
Competing against Europe will be the Americas, Africa, and Asia/Oceania. Each continent has selected two athletes per event except for races with distances of 1500m or more which allow three competitors per event. The combined men’s and women’s points will be totalled on Sunday to determine the winner.
Europe is looking to earn significant points in the field events of day one, but they are also hoping for strong showings in the track events as well. Africa is already sure to win most, if not all, of the long distance races, with a team that will include 15 Kenyans, many of them coming off successful Diamond League seasons.
Winners of each event will earn eight points for their continent, second place finishes will earn seven points, and so on until the eighth place finishers, who will earn one point for their team. In events that include three competitors from each continent, only the top two results will count. For example, if Africa were to finish in the top three places of the 5000m, they would earn a combined 15 points, while the next best finisher would earn the six points allocated to third place.
European athletes will look to finish an already successful season with strong results at the Continental Cup.
European champion Linda Stahl of Germany and Olympic silver medallist Mariya Abakumova of Russia will look to take the top two spots in the javelin. Kara Patterson of the Americas will probably be their toughest competition; she has a personal best distance of 66.67, just behind Stahl’s personal best of 66.81.
In the discus throw, Croatian Sandra Perkovic will look to continue her strong season after setting a national record of 66.93m in Brussels at the Diamond League final event. Perkovic finished second in the overall standings, but was able to beat first place finisher Yarelis Barrios of Cuba in the final event last week.
Aleksandr Shustov of Russia is one of the favourites to win in the high jump with a personal best of 2.33m. His closest competition will be former world champion, Donald Thomas of the Bahamas and American Dusty Jones, who could both hit heights over 2.30m.
Christian Reif of Germany hit a personal best distance of 8.47m in the long jump to win the European Championships, and will face American Dwight Phillps, 2004 Olympic gold medallist, who has a personal best distance of 8.74m.
Russian pole vaulter Svetlana Feofanova is a two-time Olympic medallist, and became the first women’s pole vaulter to win two European Championships when she won her second title earlier this year in Barcelona. She will be looking to improve upon her already stellar season.
Europe will have a tougher time earning points in the track events against a strong Americas team, but with many 100m sprinters already finished for the season, Chirstophe Lemaitre of France will look to take top spot in the 100m after setting a personal best time of 9.97 seconds at the IAAF World Challenge in Rieti last week.
Natalya Antyukh of Russia and Vania Stambolova of Bulgaria are expected to finish in the top two spots of the 400m hurdles, and David Greene of Great Britain will hope to continue his success in the 400m hurdles after setting his personal best time of 48.12 on the way to winning the European Championship earlier this season.
While it will be difficult for Europe to earn many points in middle and long distance races, one source of hope for the team is in the women’s 800m. Marita Savinova of Russia will take on former world champion Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya and Alysia Johnson of the United States. Savinova finished in second behind Jepkosgei in the Diamond League standings this season, but was able to beat the African runner once already on 3 July in France.
If Europe hopes to win the Continental Cup they will need to be successful in both the track and the field events tomorrow.
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