As I woke up after 4 hours of sleep, I had 20 notes from Stuart Weir, who had been up all afternoon, Turkish time. His first note was NEED to POST. That is this story on the 60 meters, which will be an intriguing final! Final in 90 minutes!
The women’s 60
If I had to choose one event that I’m most excited about in the 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships, it would be the women’s 60-meter sprint. OK, we only had the prelims so far, but all the big names made it through satisfactorily.
The race winners were – in running order
Eva Swoboda, Poland, 7.11
Darryl Neita, GBR, 7.14
Patrizia Van der Weken, Luxembourg 7.26
Mujinga Kambundji, Switzerland, 7.18
Arialis Martinez, Portugal, 7.24
The reigning European indoor Champion, Ajla del Ponte, is not in the field. The reigning World Indoor Champion, Mujinga Kambundji, is. Eva Swoboda has a PR of 6.99. Darryl Neita is in the form or her life. Asha Philip, the 2017 European champion, is there. When Kambundji and Neita met in 2022 European outdoors, they were separated by just 1 hundredth of a second.
Kambundji said of her prelim, “This was not the best race, but it’s the heat, so it’s ok. I will go back, recover and run back in the evening. I don’t find it a problem to run a couple of races in one day. I am used to it, it’s just 60m. I want to go to the final and run my best race, the fast one. Also, I hope that both my sister (Ditaji in 60mH) and I can win a medal in our events if we qualify for the final”.
Neita commented: “Good start – it’s heat so it’s kind of good to be able to blow that one out of the way. We’ve got three in one day today so I am just learning how to manage that. It’s pretty new for me; so, happy with that but most importantly to get ready for this evening. Me and my coach have written out a pretty detailed schedule by the minute for today! So I just trust that if I follow that I will be ready for this afternoon. The track was nice, it was good, and I am sure it will be a bit busier later, but it’s a great atmosphere and nice. I’m excited”.
Too close to call.
