Sports Round-Up: Qualifiers for Big-Ticket Events
New national records were set at the Estonian Track and Field Championships over the weekend as contestants grabbed their last chance to qualify for the Moscow World Championships, slated to begin August 10.
The most bittersweet result came in the women's 400 meter hurdles event, where Maris Mägi broke the Estonian national record with a time of 56.56 seconds (the previous record was 57.34), but was 0.01 second off the World Championship qualifying threshold.
Ksenija Balta tied her own national record of 11.47 seconds for the 100 meter, but also missed out on qualification - by just 0.11 seconds.
In the discus event, Olympic medalist Gerd Kanter picked up his ninth national title with a throw of 65.99 meters.
“One meter was missing from this season's personal best. I felt that my reserve, which I didn't use this competition, was greater than in previous tournaments,” Kanter, who will be leading the line in Moscow, told sport.err.ee on Sunday.
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Estonia's top triathlete, Marko Albert, has qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in October by coming in fifth at the Zurich triathlon championships.
The 34-year-old Albert began well, finishing first in the swimming leg (3.8 kilometers in 52 minutes), but fell to sixth in cycling (180 kilometers in 4 hours 52 minutes). Albert then ran the marathon in just over three hours to take fifth.
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The national basketball team won two and lost one in a mini-tournament in Estonia last week, beating Slovakia and a US university all stars team. They lost to Belarus, who narrowly beat them to first place in the final standings.
The tournament was a warmup for the start of the European Championship qualifiers, where Estonia will face the Netherlands and Portugal.
The first game will take place on Thursday.