Turkey’s Kenyan-born Yasemin Can won her second European 10,000m title in Munich on Monday as a trio of world-class heavyweights guaranteed their spots in respective finals.
Fresh from sealing the Commonwealth title, Britain’s Eilish McColgan forced the pace in the 25-lap race, but Can hit the front with just under 3km to go.
Can, who previously won the 10,000m title in Amsterdam in 2016, was merciless as she turned the screw at Munich’s Olympic Stadium, clocking a winning time of 30min 32.57sec.
McColgan claimed silver more than 8sec behind while a second Kenyan-born athlete, Israel’s defending champion and world marathon bronze medallist Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, took bronze.
In the first field medal of the Euros, world bronze medallist Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands won the women’s shot put with a best of 20.24m on the second of her six attempts.
Portugal’s Auriol Dongmo took silver with a national record of 19.82m, Schilder’s teammate Jorinde Van Klinken claiming bronze (18.94).
That was closely followed by Croatia’s Filip Mihaljevic claiming victory in the men’s shot with a best of 21.53m, Serbia’s Armin Sinancevic taking silver with 21.39m and Czech Tomas Stanek bronze (21.24).
