Two more golds for the Portuguese medalist. Pedro Pichardo (triple jump) and Auriol Dongmo (shot put) became two-time European champions on Friday. Both omitted league competition, which speaks well of their performance in the final of the European Indoor Championships (inside), which takes place in Istanbul.
They will both be crowned in Istanbul where The Portuguese will echo twice in five minutes early Saturday morning (09.25, RTP), even before Patrícia Mamona tries to repeat Pichardo and Auriol’s performance, which will be historic on a personal and collective level. Portugal leads the Istanbul 2023 medal table and risks returning with their best-ever collective performance.
With Pichardo and Auriol winning gold, Portugal now has 28 indoor European medals, 17 of them gold. But it wasn’t just medals that made another golden day for Portuguese athletics. Besides the titles of Pichardo and Auriol, Aralis Martinez made speed history by finishing the 60m final in 5th place and with a national record. Tiago Pereira took 4th in the triple jump and Jessica Inchude 4th in the shot put, on a day when Gerson Baldé achieved the best ever result in the Portuguese high jump, despite missing the final.
The worst was the withdrawal of Mariana Machado in the final of the 3000 meters, in a day marked by the surprising and spectacular bronze of Roman Kokoshko, a Ukrainian who has lived in Leiria for three years, who threw the weight at 21.84 meters ( Ukraine record), was six centimeters behind the gold of Czech Tomás Stanek.
Three gold jumps for the Olympic champion
Pedro Pichardo made only three jumps and in one of them he set the national record for the triple jump at 17.60 meters, taking 12 centimeters off the mark he set on the first jump of qualifying.
The Benfica athlete reconfirmed the European title won in Torun 2021 (the first medal as a Portuguese) to become the second Portuguese indoor champion twice, after Nelson Évora captured the titles in Prague 2015 and Belgrade 2017. “The main thing is always winning” That was the main goal. I am happy to be European indoor champion again. I broke the national record, I’m happy,” Pichardo said in the mixed zone of the Ataköy Arena.
Pedro Pichardo jumped 17.60 m – best world record of the year – on the third attempt, having started the competition with 17.26 m and abandoned the second, fourth and fifth tests, finishing with a zero. “The goal was three jumps, try to win and then see if I could get a big jump (…) I tried to get a big jump. Unfortunately it was zero and it wouldn’t be as big as I expected. But it’s not summer. In the summer let’s try a…”, said the Olympic, World and European champion outdoors.
Pichardo surpassed the Greek Nikolaos Andrikopoulos (16.58m) and the German Mark Hess (16.54m) on the podium places. Tiago Pereira finished in fourth place, with 16.51m, his best result of the year. “I feel frustrated to be so close to the medals there. The brands that award the medals are of my level and could. I’m not going to the stage and I’m the only one to blame. I’m still looking for the right times for the jumps and I feel like my best was enough to be up there on the podium,” confessed the Sporting athlete, now trained by Iván Pedroso (former Cuban champion, who became Nelson Evora trains).
Tears of overcoming the double weight champion
Pichardo celebrated the European title almost simultaneously with Auriol Dongmo, who also reconfirmed the title. The tears were of joy, but also a sign of victory. “I didn’t run the way I wanted to. I wanted to shoot more than 20 meters. But now I’m very happy because I feel I’m getting back to my level. It’s been a bit difficult this season,” Auriol admitted.
The European and world indoor champion started the competition with a throw of 19.63 meters, continued with 18.68 meters until she reached 19.76 meters – best European score of the year -, which gave her the second European title in a row. And after an out in the fourth throw, he ended the game with 19.38m and 19.62m. Auriol, the disgruntled chronicler, admitted to having been “happy to throw above 19.50”.
And he almost doubled. The friend Jessica Inchude finished the competition in fourth place, with 18.33m, behind Germany’s Sara Gambeta (18.83m) and Sweden’s Fanny Roos (18.42m): “Fourth is my medal!”
The ideal race from Arialis, who wrote history in the 60 meters
Aralis Martinez was on the verge of medals in the 60m final. On her debut for Portugal and in indoor competitions, the 27-year-old sprinter equaled Lorene Bazolo’s national record by completing the race in 7.17 seconds. “It has brought me so many emotions that I am sure I will not be able to sleep,” said the Benfica athlete, who became the first Portuguese woman to reach a 60-meter final in the European Athletics. inside.
He finished in fifth place, surpassing (by far) the 13th places achieved by Virgínia Gomes (Lievin 1987) and Bazolo (Glasgow 2019). “My coach, Ana Oliveira, and I had been thinking about getting the record for Portugal. It was matched. It was the first time I was in a championship like this and ran indoors. And yes, I would have thought it possible was,” he told the sprinter, confessing: “I can improve the start, but it was my ideal race.”
Arialis started the day by winning her tie and qualifying for the semifinals (like Lorene Bazolo and Rosalina Santos), where she earned a place in the final by running the 60 meters in 7.24s. Time that allowed her to be relegated to the final, where she placed 5th, behind Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji, Poland’s Ewa Swoboda, Britain’s Daryll Neita and Belgium’s Rani Rosius.
For the first time, Portugal managed to have three athletes in the 60m semifinals. Arialis’ happiness contrasted with the disappointment of national record holder Lorene Bazolo, age 39, and Rosalina Santos, age 25, eliminated in the semifinals. Bazolo finished in 17th place, with 7.34 seconds, one hundredth less than Rosalina Santos, 20th.
Patrícia Mamona and Marta Pen will be looking for medals on Saturday
Patrícia Mamona will defend the European title won in Torun 2021 on Saturday (16.50, RTP2). The Portuguese athlete qualified for the triple jump with 14.09 meters, the same mark achieved by the Turkish Tugba Damismaz, who benefited from the zero of the Portuguese .
The national record holder and Olympic runner-up in Tokyo 2020, who eventually had to give up the third and final jump, arrived in Istanbul in first place in the ranking of the participants and with the best European mark of the year. Entering her sixth indoor European Championships, Mamona becomes the second Portuguese with more attendance, surpassed only by former sprinter Luís Cunha, the first of the active athletes.
Marta Pen, on the other hand, promised to covet the medals in the 1500 meters (17.00, RTP2). That’s what we’re here for at the European Championships, first to get here, then to reach a final and when we get there it’s important to have a . to be a medal” said the Benfica athlete, after securing one of 12 places in the distance final, with 4:23:30 minutes.
Still on Friday Gerson Baldé failed in the high jump final. With the mark of 2.14 meters, the athlete finished among a bunch of ninth placed, achieving the best ever ranking of a Portuguese in this specialty, surpassing Rafael Goncalves’ 26th place in Vienna 2002, then among 28 competitors. “It was my first game. I felt good, it was ninth. The first eight were enough, but it wasn’t. Now it’s time to work for the summer,” said the Benfica champion.
João Coelho also failed to qualify for the 400 meters final, having qualified for the semifinals with a new national record of 46.51 seconds, 13 hundredths less than Ricardo Santos’ previous mark.
Olímpia Barbosa (60m hurdles), Evelise Veiga (free jump) and Carlos Nascimento (60m) and Abdel Larriaga (60m hurdles) and Patrícia Silva (800m) will compete at the European Championships in Istanbul on Saturday.
Source: DN
