European Athletics Championships 2006

[Bamse81]

These championships start on sunday and takes places in Gothenburg, Sweden. I will start my preview by writing on some of the events and then do some more tomorrow. Of course I will focus more on the events where the Swedes have the biggest chances of making good results. But I also know their opponents better and thus have a greater chance of scoring more profit from betting on these events. Heres my thoughts for now. As always your thoughts are greatly appreciated! Womens high jump: This event has one of the biggest favourites in the whole championship, Kajsa Bergqvist. She had a total rupture of her achilles tendon less than two years ago but this made her only better. This season has probably been her very best, she started a bit slow but that seems to have been all according to plan.. Her form now seems to have peaked as she has done at least three good attempts on Kostadinovas world record of 2.09! In the last competition she took 2.05 in the first attempt, beating the runner up by a whopping 11 cm. Bettingwise the odds on her will be low, possible where they should be, at 1.50. But theres a possibility that we might get tricked here. The one opponent that can shock us her is most likely Blanka Vlasic of Croatia. I have seen all the GPs this summer and its easy to see that shes in shape. She is pretty consistent around 2 m. To sum it up Bergqvist is the tip from me, she performs well under pressure and the fans will surely lift her to new heights! Vlasic is my choice for the runner up. Russian jumper Slesarenko is known to perform well in championships but she is yet to impress me and has had some troubles with injuries. With this in hand I have chosen a jumper who is in form and hungry for some success, Tia Hellebaut. Womens triple jump Although she has a jumping tecnique that is something out of the ordinary it is very hard to look pass Tatyana Lebedeva, Olympic Champion and un-defeated since God knows when. 15 meters is a very good result in this sport, a length that shes reached 4 times this summer. The gold is hers, its very hard to see any other outcome to be honest. It will be no shock if the silver goes to Anna Pyatykh. The battle for the bronze, however, is much hard to predict at the moment. Womens heptathlon Heres another one of those Swedish stars that almost all count on to win in Gothenburg, namely Carolina Klüft. This girl is a pure prodigy and I dont even remember her getting beaten in heptathlon, shes basically been number 1 since she entered the world stage of athletics at age 19. The only real competition I can see here is from the French Eunice Barber who is 33 years old. Barber was only trailing by 63 pts in the World championships in Helsinki but we must remember that Klüft sprained her foot early in the competition adn still won it. I am constantly trying to catch up on reports about her form and right now I have read that shes in great shape. The third spot is much hard to predict as it is a fight between 3-4 girls but im giving Kelly Sotherton my support here. Bettingwise heptathlon is fun since you can do some "live"-betting on it between the events or between the first and the second day. Mens high jump Yet another one of the Swedish stars, Stefan Holm. He started the out door season in terrible form only jumping 2.24-2.27 and such. Lately his form has been alot better and I expect him to leap around 2.32 here. The bookies will have him as favourite but I think theres a couple of Russians that (almost) have an equal chance for the gold. Firstly I am thinking about Ukhov and Silnov here but I would also like to warn you about young Swedish jumper Linus Thörnblad who is fully capable of doing 2.32 aswell. Just the other day he made his highest jump ever on training, 2.30, which just shows hes in excellent form both mentally and physically. Womens 100m hurdles Shes not one of the big Swedish stars but I just love Susanna Kallur. Twice this season she has beaten all of the fastest women in the world in this event. And guess what? At least four of those who she beat arent even European. Kallur all the way here. As for the silver I choose Bolm. The bronze is up for grabs but I'll go with Alozie. Thats all for now. I will be back with more :ok

[kevshat]

Re: European Athletics Championships 2006 Great stuff Bamse, hopefully the Euro's provide us with lots of profit. My 1st bet on the championships is this: 3pts ew D.Macey to win Decathlon 12/1 Ladbrokes (1/4 1,2,3) We all know the history of Dean Macey, so many near misses and so many injuries too but having finally conquered his dream and winning a major Decathlon gold the "Dean Machine" will be ultra confident going into this. I've read an article saying that he's in good condition for probably the 1st time ever heading into a major championships and you can rest assured nobody at the Gothenburg games will be trying harder than Dean for glory. Roman Sebrle is a worthy favourite but in an event where anything can happen and one poor event can mean curtains I genuinely think Macey is tremendous value as I see him getting a medal at worst. Dean Machine for me.