Spain win gold in the men’s 400m as Jamie Webb runs fast in 800m semi-finals at European Indoor Championships in Toruń

With three semi-final winners, many were expecting the Dutch to dominate the men’s 400m. But no one told Oscar Husillos in an exciting two-lap sprint.

The 2019 European Indoors runner-up thought he had won a medal in the 2018 World Indoor Championships only to be disqualified for a lane infringement. But on Saturday (March 6) in Poland it was his moment.

He was ahead at 200m in a fast 21.32 with the Dutch trio Jochem Dobber (21.45), Tony Van Diepen (21.55) and European leader Liemarvin Bonevacia (21.57) with Sweden’s Carl Bengstrom (21.95) a further three metres back.

At 300m, Husillos still held the advantage in 32.83 with Bonevacia (32.98), Van Diepen (33.16) and Dobber (33.16) still well clear of Bengstrom (33.60).

On the final bend, the Spaniard was slowing and the Dutch were smelling blood. However Van Diepen, who looked like he was biding his time, got caught in a box and had to swing wide in the straight and though he closed fast the extra distance he had to run proved too much.

Hussillos took a painful 13.39 for his final 100m but he had run the shortest route on the second lap and he held Van Diepen off with 46.22 to 46.25.

After the race, he said: “I need to thank my coach, my team, my physio and I was thinking of them while crossing the line. It reminds me of the world indoors when I lost the medal but I came here today and won. I suffered a lot but it paid off.”

Bonevacia was less than a few feet back in third in 46.30 with Bengtstrom finishing faster than anyone but from too far back and from too wide and he finished a metre down on the medallists in 46.42.

Dobber slowed to fifth in 46.82 but can take consolation that with three in five, he should have an almost guaranteed 4x400m medal on Sunday!

In the men’s 800m semi-finals the first heat was a strange race. Spain’s Mariano Garcia got a jump on the field despite a relatively slow first 400m in 26.99. He was eight metres clear at 600m in 80.14 and looked safe for one of the two spots but just faded in the last 50 metres and was narrowly caught by 2019 world silver medallist Amel Tuka (1:47:55) and Patryk Dobak (1:47.56).

Dobak could be a danger in the final as he possesses 46.12 400m speed and has also run a world-class 48.40 hurdles.

Garcia missed out by less than a tenth of a second and his brave run took 1:47.63.

Guy Learmonth never really got involved in the race following Tuka and Dobak but was unable to make any impression on the last lap and finished fourth in 1:47.92.

The second semi was also curious because of the furious pace. European silver medallist Andreas Kramer, who has the second fastest time of those entered, blasted through 200m in 23.85 (1:35 pace!) and though easing back a bit with a 26.97 second lap, the 400m time was still a very fast 50.82 but he still had three runners close – Pablo Sanchez-Valladares (51.07), Jamie Webb (51.22) and Mateusz Borkowski (51.34).

The Spaniard faded on the third lap and at 600m it was the Swede (78.38) marginally ahead of the charging Pole (78.39) and Webb (78.58).

The Pole passed him at the start of the last lap and did cut across him and Webb followed along the back straight.

Borkowski held on to go first across the line in an impressive PB of 1:45.79 to suddenly come into medal contention but he was initially disqualified after the race for cutting across the Swede too fast but was later reinstated on appeal.

Webb, who looked far from easy, held on to be next across the line in 1:45.99. “I went off like it was a 60,” he said. “It was brutal and crazy and Borkowski came out from nowhere. It’s one of the craziest races I have ever been in.

“I’m a better athlete than I was a year ago when I was second as I wouldn’t have got out of the position I got into in the heat and I wouldn’t have been able to run a 1:45 like I did today.”

Kramer, who ran a painful 28.49 final 200m, thought he had moved into a qualifying position with the Pole’s removal but an hour later got the bad news he was out of the final.

Ireland’s 18-year-old Cian McPhillips got moved up to third with a 1:48.06 before the Pole’s reinstatement moved him back to fourth.

The third race was a more traditional semi. Having seen the leaders of the previous two semi finals pay for their aggressiveness, 2017 world champion Pierre-Ambroise Bosse went to the front but to control it and the Frenchman ran successive 200m splits of 27.29, 28.30, 26.41 and 25.86 and made sure he did not run a metre more than he needed to.

On the last lap he just about held off the challenge of fast-finishing world indoor champion Adam Kszczot and he ran a 25.44 last lap to pick off Elliott Crestan (1:48.12).

Ireland’s 2019 bronze medallist Mark English finished fourth in 1:48.99.