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Held on the fast track in the Polish city of Toru\u0144, the 36th iteration of the European Athletics Indoor Championships served as the first major athletics meet in more than a year, after the 2020 calendar was ravaged by the global coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n
Months away from the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, training schedules and nagging injuries vied for attention with a sense of relief, as athletes embraced their belated return to competition. There were no crowds in Toru\u0144, but as usual the biennial indoor event saw a steady mix of European stalwarts, compelling upstarts, and world-class athletes. 733 competitors from 46 countries participated over the four days of the event, setting a new record in European indoor history.<\/p>\n
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Nafi Thiam Fires on All Cylinders in the Pentathlon<\/strong><\/p>\n The Rio Olympics might seem like a lifetime ago, as the usual ups and downs and the regular changing of the guard have been exacerbated by the extended hiatus of the coronavirus pandemic. It is still less than five years since Nafi Thiam edged out Jessica Ennis-Hill to win Olympic gold in the women’s heptathlon, establishing herself in the process as one of the stars of athletics.<\/p>\n A calf tear and a recurring elbow injury hampered her season in 2019, but in Toru\u0144 at the start of an Olympic year Thiam took the opportunity to lay down a marker. Her tally of 4904 points in the pentathlon carried her to gold and a new Belgian record. The nature of combined events leaves athletes especially prone to circumstance, and since the Olympics in 2016, Thiam and Katarina Johnson-Thompson have vied for gold without matching for form and fitness. At full strength their head-to-head will prove one of the highlights of Tokyo.<\/span><\/p>\n