Day 5 Review: Marathon Man Ringer Gets Home Crowd On Their Feet

On day 5 of the European Championships Munich 2022 a total of 14 sets of medals were awarded, with the crowds flocking to the venues to cheer on the new European champions. The fans were in for a treat and spoilt for choice, as athletics and beach volleyball got their competitions underway on Monday.

7 DOWN, 43 TO GO

Out of the nine sports featured at Munich 2022 the most titles will be awarded in athletics. A total of 50 gold medals are up for grabs, with the first seven snapped up on the first day of athletics events.

The marathon decisions were up first, with 110,000 spectators scattered along the course through Munich’s city centre. The local fans were not left disappointed.

Richard Ringer (GER) produced a stunning finish to snatch men’s marathon gold in the final few strides ahead of Maru Teferi, who had looked set to claim the crown for Israel with less than 50 metres to go.

“Every marathon is a surprise, now I am the champion of Europe,“ said the 33-year-old of his first ever title. “I started as a 5k runner, this is why I finished strong.

“The people around me, my friends, they gave me wings today,“ he added. ”When I ran, I remembered all the nice guys in my life. And the spectators here were like a third leg, they helped a lot with their cheering.“

Check out our full review for all highlights of the day.

FYLING UP THE WALL

Danyil Boldyrev (UKR) and Aleksandra Mirosław (POL) showed that when it comes to speed climbing, they are uncatchable, as they won men’s and women’s speed gold at Königsplatz on Monday.

For both athletes it is their second European gold medals. Boldyrev retains the gold he won in 2020, while Mirosław returns to the summit of European speed climbing for the first time since winning gold at Edinburgh 2019.

“This morning I woke up at 5 o'clock,” Boldyrev said. “I wasn't nervous, I just woke up because I felt so ready.

"I took about five cold showers today before competition. I was like 'come on, you can do it, you need focus for your good rounds and your gold medal'. It was a good day.”

Speed world record holder Mirosław led home a Polish one-two-three, with twin sisters Aleksandra and Natalia Kałucka winning silver and bronze.

Read the full review here.

CHAMPIONS’ GALLERY

PREMIERE IN MIXED DOUBLES

Emmanuel Lebesson (FRA) and Jianan Yuan (FRA) won the first table tennis gold medal of the European Championships Munich 2022, beating Ovidiu Ionescu (ROU) and Bernadette Szőcs (ROU) 3-1 in the mixed doubles final on Monday.

The Romanian pair won the first game before top-seeded Lebesson and Yuan got into their rhythm, taking three straight games.

"This is an amazing feeling now. OK, we start as No.1 (seed) but you cannot expect to catch the title. I don’t believe that we won. Maybe I will need some days,” the 2016 European singles champion Lebesson said.

"It was the first big title for us. We caught a WTT (World Table Tennis Contender in Tunis, Tunisia 2021) and finished fourth in the (Tokyo 2020) Olympic Games last year, but to catch one European title, it’s amazing. It’s a big emotion.”

Click here for the full review.

CROWD-PLEASING START

Svenja Müller and Cinja Tillmann (GER) gave the Königsplatz centre court plenty to cheer when they won the opening match of the 2022 CEV EuroBeachVolley on Monday.

The Germans impressed with their play to delight the crowd who had come out en masse for the first night of beach volleyball at the European Championships Munich 2022.

The duo eventually ran away to a 2-0 (21-14, 21-15) victory over France's Clémence Vieira and Aline Chamereau.

“In beach volleyball it can be easy to lose a few balls and then lose the whole thing,” Tillmann said. “You can't be sure, even if you're leading by a few points.

“It can be so easy to switch from winning to losing, so it doesn't matter how many points we have, we're always trying to give our best and to play the next ball as well as we can.”

Find out what else the first day of beach volleyball had on offer here.

HAT-TRICK FOR HINZE

Emma Hinze completed a hat-trick of three European track cycling titles on the boards, beating Mathilde Gros (FRA) in a photo-finish third heat to take gold in the women’s sprint. It was another rollercoaster day at Messe München, as the action had to be paused for half an hour because of a major crash in the women’s omnium.

Hinze had not really expected to win, because she had been sick all day. She explained: “I threw up so much that I really had the feeling there was something wrong with my stomach. I couldn’t eat, did not have any power, and have just eaten gels all the time, but those came out immediately as well. I thought I did not have enough power, but in the end it somehow worked out.”

With the team sprint (Friday) and 500m time trial (Sunday) titles already in her pocket, and despite the sickness, Hinze was still eager to add the still lacking European title in the individual sprint to her impressive prize cabinet. In the semifinals she beat Laurine van Riessen (NED), who eventually went on to win bronze.

Check out our full review for all of Monday’s track cycling action.

You can relive and follow all medal decisions through our live blog.