Sprints Reward Spectators at European Championships
Short distance track and field sprints are some of the most exhilarating sporting events to watch. This week's European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, underway on Tuesday, is set to treat spectators to some thrilling races.
The first of the races is also the most popular. The men's 100m final will occur at 21:45 CET on Wednesday.
Sprints reward spectators at European Championships
French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre is the first sprinter of European descent to have clocked a time under 10 seconds in the 100m.
Lemaitre, 20, set his personal best of 9.98 seconds in Valence this season, and if one of two main contenders for the gold medal.
The other is British veteran Dwain Chambers, who returns to the European Championships after a doping ban.
32-year-old Chambers won the World Indoor Championships this year and recently beat Lemaitre with a season's best of 9.99 seconds in Norway.
"I've made a lot of mistakes," the Londoner recently told BBC Sport about the ban he was handed in 2003.
Chambers, whose 2002 European Championship gold medal was stripped as a result of the ban, added that "doing the right thing is so much more rewarding."
Other contenders in the shortest sprint event will be Norway's Jaysuma Saidy Ndure, who has a personal best of 10.01 seconds, and France's Martial Mbandjock.
In the women's 100m on Thursday evening, Belraussian sprinter Alena Neumiarzhytskava is the main gold medal contender. The 30-year-old claimed the Belarussian national title in June by clocking 11.01 seconds.
Eastern Europe dominates women's 200m
Eastern European sprinters will likely dominate the women's 200m event as well. Russia's Aleksandra Fedoriva, the current European under-23 champion, is the fastest of the starting sprinters with a personal best of 22.41 seconds.
Fellow Russian Yulia Chermoshanskaya recently recorded her PB in Norway this year, finishing in 22.71 seconds. In 2008, Chermoshanskaya claimed the 200m gold at the Beijing Olympics.
With the starters' best times over a second behind Usain Bolt's world record, the men's 200m final will not be heralded in the history books, but it should pit some closely matched sprinters against each other.
Lemaitre will be looking to bag a second gold medal here, and with a personal best superior to most of his European counterparts at 20.16 seconds, it should be a straight forward win for him.
Again, Ndure may be able to challenge, though it's far from certain that he will come close to his own personal best of 20.31 seconds.
Sweden's Johan Wissman, who finished behind the retired Portugese sprinter Francis Obikwelu in the 200m final in the 2006 tournament, will look to challenge as an outsider in Friday's final.
Great Britain to Thrive in 400m?
The men's 400m final, also on Friday, will see three sprinters in particular fight for the gold medal.
Belgian sprinter Jonathan Borlee, Great Britain's Martyn Rooney and David Gilick of Ireland have all clocked under 45 seconds in their careers.
Rooney, who ran 44.99 seconds twice in June this year, has not been able to match Borlee's current season's best of 44.77 seconds. Gilick, meanwhile, clocked 44.95 earlier in the season.
The British team stand a good chance of grabbing at least one medal, with Michael Bingham's recent 45.08 second race rendering him a podium contender alongside Rooney.
"I'm here to win," said Rooney, 23, to BBC Sport ahead of the tournament. The Briton finished in 45.72 seconds in Tuesday's first round to make the semi-finals alongside Bingham, Gilick and Borlee.
In the women's 400m, reigning European champion Vania Stambolova holds the season's best of 50.88 seconds.
The Bulgarian will look to fend off challenges from a Russian team abundant in talent in the long sprint distance, but it's uncertain whether she will manage to do so.
Among the Russian sprinters challenging Stambolova will be Kseniya Ustalova, with a season's best of 50.33 seconds, and Tatyana Firova.
Anastasiya Kapachinskaya, also of Russia, holds the fastest European 400m time in 2010 (50.16 seconds), but will compete in the 200m event in Barcelona.
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