Flawless Frankel flies into final

Israeli track and field fans finally have something to cheer about this summer: Danielle Frankel, the 22-year-old ballet dancer turned athlete who won the Israeli Championship with a record-breaking leap of 1.91 meters earlier this month, proved she is a force to be reckoned with on the international stage as well, qualifying for the final of the high jump at the European Championships in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium with a jump of 1.92 meters.

	Danielle Frankel clearing 1.92 meters to qualify for the final of the high jump at Barcelona.
	Photo by: Reuters

While Frankel had a prefect day, needing just one attempt at each of the five heights she attempted, her compatriot Ma'ayan Forman failed to clear 1.83 meters and was eliminated from the competition.

The final gets underway at 8:30 this evening, with live coverage on Eurosport.

Elsewhere in Barcelona yesterday, Mo Farah secured a distance double for Great Britain, following his 10,000 meters victory with a 5,000 win. Farah made up for silver four years ago with a commanding performance as he held off the challenge of Spain's Jesus Espana and Azerbaijan's Hayle Ibrahimov to win in 13 minutes, 31.18 seconds.

Farah crumpled to the ground in tears after the victory as Espana - who took gold over him by just 0.09 seconds in Goteborg, Sweden in 2006 - congratulated the Somalian-born runner. Espana passed Ibrahimov to take silver in 13:33.12.

 

In the women's heptathlon, Jessica Ennis of Britain won her heat in the 800 meters to take gold with a new European Championships record. Ennis, holding an 18-point lead over Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska coming into the two-lap race, led from the start until her Ukrainian opponent went ahead going into the final bend. But Ennis immediately powered past to win in a season's best time of 2 minutes, 10.18 seconds and add the European title to the world one she won last year. Ennis' points total of 6,823 was a championship record, surpassing Carolina Kluft's 6,740 in 2006.

Myriam Soumaire, meanwhile, denied Russia's women another gold medal when the Frenchwoman won the 200 meters. Moments after teammate and 100 meter silver medalist Veronique Mang was disqualified for a false start, Soumaire surged to the front of the field from the outside lane to win the race in a European season's best time of 22.32 seconds. Ukraine's Yelizaveta Bryzhina took silver as the top two passed Aleksandra Fedoriva just as the Russian seemed set for gold when she led coming out of the bend. Russian women had won five medals on Friday night.

Poland picked up its first gold thanks to Marcin Lewandowski's 800 meters win while Belarus' Andrei Mikhnevich edged Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland and defending champion Ralf Bartels of Germany for shot put gold.