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2024 Review | A record breaking year for European athletes

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2024 will go down as a record breaking year with some of the longest-standing European – and world – records rewritten, some for the first time in decades, others were updated on a more regular basis by in-form European athletes.

Across the course of the year, 36 European records and bests were rewritten in senior, U23, U20 and U18 age groups, including nine that were also new world records or bests.

The year launched with the indoor season and the most significant record to fall was the women’s short track 400m by Femke Bol. Firstly, she clipped 0.02 off her own world record, clocking 49.24 at the Dutch Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn on 18 February. 

Then with expectations sky high, she went quicker still at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow on 2 March, clocking 49.17 to win gold.

A few weeks earlier, at the Millrose Games in New York on 11 February, British trio Josh Kerr, Laura Muir and George Mills were also in record breaking form. Over two miles, Kerr set a world short track best of 8:00.67 and Muir ran 9:04.84, a European best for the distance. In the one mile race, Mills clocked 3:48.93 for a new European best.

Alekna removes long standing discus record

There was no let up when the outdoor season got underway. Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna removed the longest surviving men's world record, when he threw 74.35m in the discus at the Oklahoma Throws Series World Invitational in the USA on 14 April.

It improved Jurgen Shult’s mark of 74.08m which had stood since 1986. Alekna went on to win bronze at Roma 2024 and silver at the Olympics Games, underlining his quality, whilst re-emphasising the unprecedented competitiveness of the event in the modern era.

Few athletes have hit the heights quite like pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis in recent years.

The Swede had a relatively modest indoor season by his own lofty standards where his best performance was 6.05m in a successful defence of his world indoor title in Glasgow but as he emerged from the indoors, the serial record breaker that sport has become so familiar with, returned.

Duplantis opened his outdoor season by clearing 6.24m at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting in China on 20 April to add another centimetre to a world record he had set in his last outdoor meeting of the 2023 season at the Eugene Diamond League. 

Inevitably, there would be more to come from Mondo.

Mahuchikh takes record to new heights

The incredible performances kept coming. Matthew Hudson-Smith lit up the Bislett Games on May 30 as he blitzed to a new European men’s 400m record of 44.07 in Oslo.   

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, like Mondo, is an athlete who possesses the art of the seemingly impossible.

She cleared 2.10m at the Paris Diamond League on 7 July, consigning another long standing world record to the history books, this time it was Bulgaria's Stefka Kostadinova’s 2.09m that had stood since the 1987 World Athletics Championships.

Five days later, at the Monaco Diamond League meeting, Jakob Ingebrigtsen showed he was in superb shape when setting a new European record of 3:26.73 over 1500m, moving ever closer to Hicham El Guerrouj’s 1998 world record of 3:26:00. 

Femke Bol then got a slice of the action outdoors, setting a new European record of 50.95 in the women’s 400m hurdles in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland on 14 July.

Great Britain’s Hudson-Smith then went even faster, thrilling a packed crowd at the London Diamond League on 20 July as he stormed to 43.74 in a single lap, lopping a chunky 0.33 off his short-lived European record.

Mondo magic in Paris

Come the Olympics Games Paris 2024, and with every athlete seeking to deliver a peak performance, records were always liable to come under threat.

And so, it proved.

The pattern was set by the Dutch 4x400m team in the mixed relay, with another superb final leg by Femke Bol snatching gold from the USA in a European record of 3:07.43 on 3 August. Eugene Omalla, Lieke Klaver and Isaya Klein Ikkink all shared the glory with Bol. 

Next to centre stage, came Mondo Duplantis in the men’s pole vault final on 5 August.

Having defended his Olympic title with first time clearances to 6.10m, the brilliant Swede set the bar to a world record 6.25m. After two failures, he dramatically and thrillingly succeeded to a rapturous response from the Stade de France crowd.

Inspired by her home crowd, Roma 2024 gold medallist Alice Finot ran to a European record of 8:58.67* in the women’s 3000m steeplechase final and was just outside the medals in fourth on 6 August

Two days later and Hudson-Smith again reset the European record with 43.44* in the men’s 400m final. Almost cruelly, it was not quite enough to win, as the Briton was edged into second place by USA’s Quincy Hall who was just 0.04 faster.

On the final night of track action, Hudson-Smith took part ownership of another European record. The Great Britain men’s 4x400m team which also included Alex Haydock-Wilson, Lewis Davey and Charles Dobson took bronze in a high quality final in 2:55.83.

Nordic brilliance in Silesia

There was no Olympic hangover with two more world records within a fortnight at the Silesia Diamond League.

Fresh from winning 5000m gold in Paris, Jakob Ingebrigtsen slashed the men’s 3000m world record down to 7:17.55, nearly three seconds faster than Daniel Komen’s seemingly impenetrable world record that had stood since 1996.

And yet again Mondo delivered on the hype, taking the men’s pole vault record to 6.26m with his second attempt. It was the tenth occasion in which he has set the world record and the third time in 2024.

Laros leads assault on U20 records

Not to be outdone, there were also several U20 records set during the course of the track and field year. Two of them came from the Netherlands' Niels Laros, later crowned the men's European Athletics Rising Star for 2024. 

Firstly, he ran 2:14.37 over 1000m in front of his home fans at Hengelo on 7 July, setting a world U20 record. At the Olympic Games, he was sixth in a scintillating men’s 1500m final in 3:29.54* on 6 August, setting a new European U20 record. 

It was one of three records the Dutch athlete revised during the year, adding to a European U20 record on the roads, when he clocked 13:26 at the Monaco 5km on 11 February. 

Indoors, Poland’s Marek Zakrzewski set a European U20 best of 20.80 in the men’s 200m short track in Luxembourg on 21 January.

Denmark’s Sofia Thøgersen enjoyed a fine indoor season too, setting a women's U20 short track mile record of 4:29.31 in Ostrava, Czechia on 30 January, then a new women’s short track 3000m U20 record with 8:50.26 on 3 February in Metz, France.

Meanwhile, Mattia Furlani set out his stall for the year ahead, leaping to 8.34m indoors at the Italian championships in Ancona on 17 February, just one centimetre short of Sergey Morgunov’s world and European U20 record from 1993. 

But it was a record of borrowed time. Furlani took ownership in the outdoor season with 8.36m at Savona on 15 May. He then extended it to 8.38m in the opening round at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships to win silver, later adding an Olympic bronze in Paris. 

Hodgkinson among U23 record breakers

The European U23 records were also rewritten in 2024, Alekna still aged 21 at the time of his monumental discus throw was among the new additions. So too was Laros’ 1000m run. 

Olympic and European women’s 800m gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson’s fastest time of the year came at the London Diamond League with 1:54.61* and it was also a new European U23 record for the British runner.

Another Roma 2024 medallist, Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland staked ownership of the European U23 record when running 12.40 in the women’s 100m final in the Stadio Olimpico for silver.

Max Dehning made a huge breakthrough when launching the javelin 90.20m in the German Winter Throwing Championships in Halle on 25 February, snatching the men’s European U23 record in the process and becoming the youngest man ever to throw over ninety metres.

U18 bests for future stars

In a year of the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska-Bystrica, Slovakia there were also new U18 bests set by some of the sport’s rising talents.

First up in the indoor season was next generation Norwegian talent Magnus Øyen who set a new European U18 best in the men’s short track 1500m, clocking 3:45.21 in Reykjavík, Iceland on 4 February. Great Britain’s Jake Odey-Jordan also clocked a world short track 200m U18 best of 20.66 in Boston, USA on 10 March.

In the women’s 800m, another British athlete was making a big breakthrough. Phoebe Gill clocked 1:57.86 in Belfast on 11 May to set a European U18 best. She later reached the semi finals at the Olympics.

At Banska Bystrica, Slovakia’s Laura Frličková fulfilled all the home hopes, setting a new European U18 best in the 100m hurdles semi-finals of 12.86 on 18 July, before taking gold in the final a day later.

Czechia’s Michal Rada was another standout performer, setting a European U18 best of 49.42 as he won 400m hurdles gold on 21 July.

With the barriers raised from 84.0cm to 91.4cm at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, he added another record of 49.30 as he won silver on 31 August.

In yet another golden moment for Italy, the quarter of Viola Canovi, Margherita Castellani, Laura Frattaroli and Elisa Valensin won the medley relay in Banska Bystrica in a European U18 best of 2:05.23 on 21 July.

Post-Banska Bystrica, 3000m gold medallist and 1500m silver medallist Aldin Ćatović of Serbia, set a European U18 best in the men’s 2000m in Zagreb, Croatia of 5:04.90 on 8 September to cap an excellent year. 

As winter descended and the indoor season came to life, Norway’s Lukas Buncic set a new European U18 best in the men’s 2000m short track, clocking 5:17.05 in Hvam, Norway on 7 December.

Road records reset

On the roads, alongside Laros’ 5km U20 record, there were new senior records over one mile in Dusseldorf, Germany on 1 September where Great Britain’s Elliot Giles who set a new men’s world record of 3:51.3 and the Netherlands’ Marissa Damink set a women's European best of 4:30.3. 

Right from the start of the year, the senior men's 10k record of 27:13 held by Switzerland's Julien Wanders came under attack, fellow Swiss runner Dominic Lobalu equalled the mark at the Valencia 10k on 14 January. But then it was taken from Swiss hands as the French took full ownership.

Firsly, Jimmy Gressier set a new European record of 27:07 in Lille on 17 March. Nearly eight months later in the same city and the record shifted to French teammate Etienne Daguinos who went three seconds faster in victory with 27:04*.

At the start of the year Axel Vang Christensen plugged into a rich vein of form. One month after winning the men’s U20 race at the SPAR European Athletics Championships in Brussels,the Dane took the European U23 10km record on the roads, clocking 28:21 in the slipstream of Lobalu in Valencia on 14 January.

There was also late season double of European U18 10km bests.  It came from Norwegian sources again, via Magnus Øyen (29:14) and Wilma Anna Bekkemoen Torbiörnsson (33:29) in the men’s and women's races respectively in Høle, Norway on 19 October.

Truly, 2024 was a record breaking year in every sense.

Chris Broadbent for European Athletics

(* subject to ratification)




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