Two championship records, one championship best, five world U20 leads, 13 European U20 leads, one national senior record, five national U23 records and 35 national U20 records were set on the Conica surface at the Jerusalem 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships last week.
One of the standout performances came from Latvia’s rising distance star Agate Caune who smashed the championship record and her personal best with 15:03.85 in the women’s 5000m to become the third athlete ever to achieve the 3000/5000m double in the European Athletics U20 Championships.
Another prodigious distance talent, Niels Laros of the Netherlands, although well off the championship records in tactical races, unleashed a lightning-fast 51.35 last 400m in the 1500m en-route to his 1500/5000m distance double.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Mattia Furlani came out on top in a thrilling men’s long jump final which saw both the gold and silver medallists go further than the previous championship record. Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Sarâboyukov jumped over eight metres five times, including a Bulgarian U20 record of 8.22m in the second round, but it wasn't enough to displace Italy's Mattia Furlani from the top of the podium with a championship record of 8.23m.
There was a championship best in the decathlon pole vault too, with Germany's Amadeus Gräber clearing 5.10m on his way to win gold with a world U20-leading total of 8209 points overall, thanks to a string of personal bests. All three medallists achieved over 8000 points with Austria's Matthias Lasch taking silver and Andrin Huber of Switzerland bronze.
In the women’s pole vault, Lithuania's Rugilė Miklyčiūtė took silver with a 5cm personal best, improving her own national record of 4.15m. It was the only national senior record set during a championships which saw no fewer than 40 age group records.
Nina Chioma Ndubuisi in the women’s shot put and Max Lampinen in the men’s hammer also set world U20 leads, and world U20 bronze medallist and European U18 champion Mykhailo Brudin set world U20 leads in both qualification (65.48m) and in the final (66.58m).
Sprinters clearly loved the Conica surface too, with plenty of personal bests set across the board and a host of national records in the sprints and relays as well as other events.
A four-year partnership
Last year, European Athletics announced a four-year Partnership Agreement with the renowned track manufacturer until the end of 2026, awarding Conica the status of Preferred Supplier of European Athletics in the ‘tracks and sport flooring’ category.
This means that Conica is designated as an Official Supplier at events where their tracks are used, covering European Athletics Championships, European Athletics Indoor Championships, European Athletics Team Championships and European Athletics U18/U20/U23 Championships – so it looks like records will continue to fall!
About Conica
Conica has been developing and manufacturing innovative seamless flooring solutions based on polyurethane and epoxy resins for sports, games, leisure as well as other areas for over 40 years. Conica is one of the world’s market leaders and innovation drivers in this field. The user-oriented requirements for technical and sports functional performance as well as usability while guaranteeing health aspects of the material itself and for the user are the focus of product development. Conica is part of the Serafin group of companies based in Munich.
View the full list of records set at Jerusalem 2023.