Germany on top despite Olympic javelin champion flop

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France: Germany led the European team athletics championship on Saturday despite Olympic javelin champion Thomas Roehler managing just third place in his final.

After 21 of 40 events, Germany have 166 points with Poland in second spot (150.5) and Britain in third (144.50).

Roehler managed a throw of 84.22m but was beaten by Czech rival Jakub Vadlejch whose 87.95m was a championship record while Greece’s Ioannis Kiriazis was second with 86.33m.In the shot put, Tomas Stanek of the Czech Republic won with 21.63m to stun Germany’s two-time world champion David Storl whose best was 21.23m.

Britain, the hosts of August’s world championships, dominated the men’s 4x100m relay, winning in 38.08sec.Olympic champion Ekaterini Stefanidi took victory in the women’s pole vault with 4.70m.