Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

ATHLETICS

Historic gold for Klüft

Home favourite Karolina Klüft lived up to her top billing at the European Championships in Gothenburg on Tuesday, crushing her rivals to win an historic gold in the heptathlon.

Published: 9 August 2006 07:15 CEST

In posting a championship record 6,740 points, Klüft became the first Swede to defend a European gold.

“Emotionally, it’s my biggest gold,” said the Swede afterwards.

Klüft’s bid for victory was undoubtedly buoyed by the withdrawal of her chief challenger, Eunice Barber of France.

The current world and Olympic champion completed the seven disciplines in the gruelling event a massive 317pts ahead of silver medallist Karin Ruckstuhl of the Netherlands, while German Lilli Schwarzkopf won bronze three points further adrift.

In the second day of competition, Klüft recorded a best of 6.65m in the long jump in front of a large and vocal home crowd of 30,000, threw a fifth-best 46.94m in the javelin, and completed the 800m in 2min 14.95sec.

“It brought up so many feelings afterwards – I’ve had to fight so hard,” said Klüft, after being presented with her medal by Crown Princess Victoria.

The Local/AFP

SPORT

Nuns on the run: Vatican launches its first athletics team

Faster, higher...holier. The newly-formed Vatican Athletics team, which is aiming to compete in international competitions, including the Olympics, was officially launched on Thursday after reaching a bilateral agreement with the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI).

Published: 11 January 2019 08:49 CET
Nuns on the run: Vatican launches its first athletics team
Priests take part in a fun run in front of St Peter's in 2013. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

So far there are 60 members of Vatican Athletics — the first Sports Association constituted in the Holy See — which includes nuns, priests, Swiss Guards and other workers.

Monsignor Melchor José Sánchez de Toca y Alameda, president of Vatican Athletics, said at the launch that the Olympic Games were “the dream but not in the short term”.

“The dream that we have often had is to see the Holy See flag among the delegations at the opening of the Olympic Games,” he said. But in the immediate future Vatican Athletics would like to be present at smaller competitions such as the Mediterranean Games.

READ ALSO: 

Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) president Giovanni Malago praised the latest initiative at the Holy See, which already has football and cricket teams.

“It will be necessary to affiliate with other federations,” he told Vatican News. “I'm sure this will happen, today we have started a courageous and winning start up.”

The CONI agreement allows the team to take part in national and internationally sanctioned events and to have access to Italian national coaching and medical facilities.

Team members wearing navy track suits with the Holy See's crossed keys seal were present at the launch. The youngest athlete is a 19-year-old Swiss guard, and the oldest a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library.


Priests play football by the Vatican as part of the Clericus Cup. Photo: Tiziana Fabi/AFP

Two young Muslim asylum seekers, Jallow Buba, a 20-year-old Gambian, and Anszou Cissè, a 19-year-old Senegalese, have also been registered as honorary members.

Vatican pharmacist and runner Michela Ciprietti said she welcomed the initiative as “sport is the means of bringing people together.”

The team's first official event will be the Corsa di Miguel on January 20th, a 10km race in Rome honouring Miguel Sanchez, an Argentine distance runner who disappeared during the country's dictatorship.