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A closer look at the 2024 Rising Star finalists

News
A closer look at the 2024 Rising Star finalists

24th October 2024 11:56

The future of athletics in Europe looks in safe and exciting hands. This year’s finalists for the Rising Star trophy at the Golden Tracks awards night in Skopje on Saturday (26) includes two record-breaking middle distance wonderkids, two up-and-coming stars in the combined events and two excellent exponents in the throws.

Watch the Golden Tracks awards night live on our YouTube channel from 8.00pm CEST on Saturday

Gill and Laros re-write the record books

Phoebe Gill made headlines not just nationally but internationally in early May when she clocked an incredible 1:57.86 for 800m in Belfast, just two weeks after celebrating her 17th birthday. Her time shaved almost two seconds from the European U18 best of 1:59.65 which dated back to 1979 in terms of antiquity.

And the 17-year-old showed she has a wise racing head on young shoulders by winning the 800m title at the British Championships to seal her place on the British team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the youngest Brit to qualify for the athletics team since Moscow 1980.

Gill acquitted herself well on her Olympic debut, navigating a safe passage through her 800m heat before just missing out on a place in the final by finishing fourth in her semifinal in 1:58.47.

By contrast, Niels Laros had a somewhat turbulent season before coming good in Paris where he finished a creditable sixth - he was the youngest finalist by two years - in a highly anticipated 1500m final in 3:29.54. This eclipsed Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s European U20 record of 3:30.16 and he became just the second junior in history to break the 3:30-barrier for 1500m.

The prospect of fast times in Monaco and London prior to the Paris Olympics were scuppered by an untimely and frustrating pair of falls but Laros did make a further imprint on the record books at the FBK Games in Hengelo where he took a jubilant victory in the 1000m in a world U20 and European U23 record of 2:14.39.

Jarvinen and Koscak on the rise in the combined events

Tomas Jarvinen came agonisingly close to etching his name into the record books at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima.

The Czech added another chapter of history to his country’s rich and illustrious tradition in the combined events by winning the decathlon title with 8425 points, leading from the first event and just missing out on the world U20 record by 10 points.

Incidentally, the world U20 record of 8435 points stands to Germany’s Niklas Kaul who was the last decathlete to be crowned men’s Rising Star at the Golden Tracks award night in 2019.

On the women’s side, Croatia’s Jana Koscak won her first major heptathlon title in Lima after injury derailed her bid to win the European Athletics U20 Championships the previous year.

Koscak, who is also teetering on the cusp of world class as a high jumper with a 1.92m lifetime best, set a world U20 lead of 5977 points at the European Athletics Championships before winning gold at the World Athletics U20 Championships in cold and windy conditions with 5807 points.

And if Koscak is crowned women’s Rising Star on Saturday, she will become just the second Croatian winner of this award after eventual seven-time European discus champion Sandra Elkasevic in 2010.

Dominant gold for Kesidis and more senior success for Vilagos

One of the most dominant winners at the World Athletics U20 Championships was Cyprus’ Iosif Kesidis in the hammer.

Not only did the Cypriot win gold by seven metres, he produced a full series of valid throws - 79.47m, 76.91m, 80.95m, 81.53m, 78.71m, 82.80m - all of which would have sufficed for the gold medal in the discipline.

And Kesidis is in contention to make history at the Golden Tracks awards night as no athlete from Cyprus has ever been crowned European Athlete of the Year or Rising Star.

By contrast, there could be a second successive Serbian winner of the women’s Rising Star trophy with Adriana Vilagos in contention to succeed her compatriot Angelina Topic.

The oldest of the six finalists at 20, Vilagos won her second successive medal at the European Athletics Championships with silver in Rome and finished the year ranked second in Europe with a Serbian record of 65.64m.

Vilagos would have been disappointed to miss out on a place in the Olympic final but the 20-year-old was otherwise hugely impressive all year, surpassing the 60 metre-line in 14 of her 15 competitions and taking her very first Diamond League victory in Silesia in late August to shake off any residual disappointment from her performance in Paris.