Evening all, we’re coming firing out of the gate with this evening’s session. The top of the women’s heptathlon is tighter than than tight. With Ireland’s Kate O’Connor’s points total after six events is just 51 points clear of Dutch rival Emma Oosterwegel in second. World Indoor champion Sofie Dokter, also of the Netherlands, is third and 71 points adrift of the Irishwoman. O’Connor must finish within 3.5secs of Oosterwegel and 4.9secs of Dokter. O’Connor’s PB in the 800m is around a second behind Oosterwegel, but Dokter has not gone under 2mins 10secs.
Tom Bassam is stepping in for an hour.
Women's heptathlon standings: top five
Kate O’Connor (Ireland) 5,812pts
Emma Oosterwegel (Netherlands) 5,761pts
Sofie Dokter (Netherlands) 5,741pts
Annik Kälin (Switzerland) 5,707pts
Sophie Weißenberg (Germany) 5,689pts
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Mystery surrounds a highly regarded British Athletics coach who has not been heard from since visiting Morocco around two months ago.
Leon Baptiste, 41, who coaches a number of elite athletes including the Paris Olympic 4x400m relay bronze medallist Charlie Dobson, is believed to have gone to Morocco for the weekend with some close friends for a stag do or golf trip.
However, he has not been heard from since by his athletes or the UK Athletics officials who pay him as a Loughborough-based consultant, with messages to his phone not returned.
And that’s final …
What are you most looking forward to this evening? Feel free to send me an email.
Saturday schedule (all times UK)
7.45pm Women’s 800m heptathlon (final)
8.01pm Men’s javelin (final)
8.07pm Women’s high jump (final)
8.10pm Women’s 400m (final)
8.17pm Men’s triple jump (final)
8.25pm Men’s 10,000m (final)
9.07pm Men’s 1,500m (final)
9.33pm Men’s 4x100 relay (final)
9.48pm Women’s 4x100 relay (final)
When Audrey Werro was a child, she was so painfully shy that her father told her she had to become a lion every time she raced. In a European women’s 800m final for the ages, she followed that advice to the letter.
As the 22-year-old Swiss superstar came around the final bend, she could feel Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson on her shoulder, waiting to strike. The Dutch flyer Femke Broeders-Bol was also close enough to dream too. But Werro was ready to flash her teeth.
It didn’t matter that she had been spiked by Broeders-Bol after 200m. Or that she had led the pack into the face of a swirling wind for most of the race. She didn’t succumb. She roared.
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And just in case you missed Sean’s report from last night …
Hodgkinson would like to ‘stretch myself three more inches’
Keely Hodgkinson has been reflecting on her narrow defeat by Audrey Werro in the women’s 800m on Friday with the British press, including the Guardian’s Sean Ingle, and foresees more showdowns with the Swiss and Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands:
“This rivalry could be epic now, couldn’t it? In Budapest, Beijing, LA, the three of you …
“Yeah. Every year we definitely had like new people come out. I always say every year there’s always someone. Someone makes an appearance, but yeah, I just got to go to training, keep doing what I’m doing, and just hope that it’s enough.”
Does that fuel your fire when you lose something like that? Does it make you even more determined in training? Does it make you even more hungry?
“Yeah, definitely. It definitely does. I’ve been very motivated in training, and I do feel overall that like that race, I do feel like I’m better than that. But you know, she [Werro] was two-tenths ahead of me. Stockholm was four, so you could say the gap closed a little bit. But yeah, I don’t think I did anything wrong. It is what it is.”
We’ve had these eras in your sort of event, where we’ve had two or three, like Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett, chasing records, chasing medals. They’re quite different to you. They’re both giants compared to you.
“Yeah, I think one thing that does frustrate me a little bit is everyone like: ‘Oh, this person runs like this, and this person’s really tall, and Keely’s really small, da-da-da.’ You don’t say that to Faith Kipyegon. Ain’t none of you calling us small, so why call me small?”
They are very tall!
“They are, they are, but I can’t do anything about my height! Or the length of my legs.”
They are different athletes, so you’ve got different strengths and weaknesses.
“Yeah, yeah. If I could stretch myself three more inches, I definitely would. But yeah, I back myself completely. I think we’ll always be compared and what they can do, what I can do. Everyone’s got different strengths and weaknesses, and it’s all about each of us figuring out how to run our best 800 and then doing it against each other; that is like the hard part, and you just hope it goes your way on the day. But that makes it really exciting. I think the crowd really enjoyed it. I think everyone was talking about it, and I’m just happy to be able to be a part of it.”
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Now for something from our chief sports reporter, Sean Ingle …
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Preamble
The hits keep on coming at the European Athletics Championships: nine gold medals will be handed out on the penultimate evening of competition in Birmingham.
Kate O’Connor is well placed to seal women’s heptathlon glory in the 800m from 7.45pm UK time, with Josh Wightman running in the men’s 1,500m final, scheduled for 9.07pm. For the men’s and women’s 4x100 relays, the last two events on the bill at 9.33pm and 9.48pm respectively, fans will definitely be out of their seats.
But everything is high stakes: everything on the schedule has “FINAL” written next to it. The men’s javelin, women’s high jump, women’s 400m, men’s triple jump and men’s 10,00m are all on the menu, too.
Let’s get ready to rumble.
