Day 9 Review: Pidcock Reigns Supreme On Olympiaberg

On day 9 of the European Championships Munich 2022, world-class athletes such as Tom Pidcock, Femke Bol or Karsten Warholm demonstrated that they truly are in a league of their own, as they cruised to gold. Elsewhere, the medal race is heating up with host nation Germany looking to add to their tally and stay atop the overall medal table. You can follow and relive all events in our live blog.

IN A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN

Tom Pidcock (GBR) doesn’t seem to care what sort of bike he races. Coming off a Tour de France in which the Oympic mountain bike champion won the prestigious stage to l’Alpe d’Huez, he only had a couple of weeks of training before leaving the rest of the field far behind to take the European mountain bike title at Munich 2022.

Denmark’s Sebastian Fini Carstensen beat Swiss Filippo Colombo in the battle for silver and bronze.

Not riding mountain bike races regularly, Pidcock did not start front row and he had a bit of a struggle to get up front. He explained: “I had a crash on the first corner, which was not ideal. But it felt a bit like a cross (cyclo-cross) race the first few laps. It was superfast and you couldn’t really move up very well.”

Once he had caught up with the mainly Swiss lead group, Pidcock went on the attack straight away and quickly established a 25-second gap towards the rest.

With Pidcock gone, the others quickly decided that their battle was for silver. Carstensen said: “When Tom attacked, obviously he’s super strong, and I tried not to go with him. I would rather finish second like now, and not blow myself up going with him.“

Read the full review here.

BOL AND WARHOLM LIGHT UP THE TRACK

Femke Bol (NED) and Karsten Warholm (NOR) lit up the Olympiastadion track on Friday evening when they won gold in the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles finals with a stunning pair of record-breaking runs.

Bol completed her quest to win the unique one-lap double when she added the hurdles gold to the 400m flat title she took on Wednesday.

The Dutch flyer didn’t just win again, however, she utterly dominated the race and claimed the title with a championship record of 52.67 seconds, eclipsing a mark that had stood unchallenged since 2010.

“I am very surprised to achieve such a fast time,“ she said. “Winning this gold medal is a big relief. It was a great race for me, but it was very hard mentally to race after doing the 400m without hurdles.

“I am so proud to achieve the double. I knew that if nothing strange happens I would get this medal but it was very hard.”

Check out the full athletics review here.

CHAMPIONS’ GALLERY

EINS, ZWEI, DREI

Three Germans qualified for the semifinals of the women’s singles table tennis tournament and secured a medal. Nina Mittelham (GER), Sabine Winter (GER) and Xiaona Shan (GER) will make Austrian hope Sofia Polcanova (AUT) company into the final four after winning their quarterfinals at Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle on Friday night.

The 29-year-old Munich local Winter, who had been eliminated from the mixed doubles and women’s doubles tournaments before reaching the medal matches, said her 4-0 win over Giorgia Piccolin (ITA) made up for the early exits.

”This was like a dream for me, it came true and I’m happy about it,” Winter said.

”After a bit of a disappointment at the start of this tournament, in mixed doubles and doubles where it didn’t work out with a medal, it’s great that I somehow still got a medal here in Munich, in singles.”

You can find the full table tennis review here.

GOING FOR GOLD

Reigning champions Tanja Hüberli and Nina Brunner (SUI) will be back in the CEV EuroBeachVolley gold medal match to defend the title they won at Vienna 2021 after the Swiss pair beat Spanish duo Daniela Álvarez Mendoza and Tania Moreno Matveeva 2-0 (21-14, 21-17).

Hüberli and Brunner will face Latvia’s Tina Graudiņa and Anastasija Kravčenoka who defeated the Netherlands’ Raïsa Schoon and Katja Stam 2-0 (21-13, 21-19) in a dominant display.

“Reaching the final was definitely our goal,” Hüberli said. “There was a lot of pressure to win the game, and Spain are playing well, but it made it really fun to play here, especially with that crowd.”

In the first semifinal, Graudiņa and Kravčenoka made a strong start and didn’t hold back till the win was secured.

Having finished fourth in 2021, the pair channelled their frustration to ensure they wouldn’t miss the medals again.

“It is truly amazing,” Graudiņa said. “We have played really good beach volleyball throughout the season but without the reward of a medal, so that is why it feels so nice to get over the hurdle of the semifinal and reach a final.”

Read the full review here.

RISE FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM OF…

The German and British national anthems both rang out several times at the Olympic Regatta Centre on Friday in the first round of canoe sprint finals.

The German men’s kayak four set the scene with a superb finish to overhaul Spain in the last 250m of their race, delighting the fans.

“It may have looked chill, but I did not feel that way. It’s a thing from this kayak four, that we have a good finish and we used it,” said Felix Frank (GER).

Great Britain stamped their mark on the paracanoe events, taking gold and silver in both the women’s VL2 and VL3 200m races as well as gold in the men’s VL3 200m. All three champions – Emma Wiggs (GBR), Charlotte Henshaw (GBR) and Jack Eyers (GBR) – set European best times in the process.

Find all highlights and reactions in our full review.