Slovakia’s Laura Frličková thrilled the home crowd as she stormed to a European U18 best in the 100m hurdles at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica on Thursday (18) evening.
The major home hope for gold and the current world U18 leader rose to the occasion with a technically superb run, clocking 12.86 (+2.0), taking 0.12 off Cyréna Samba-Mayela’s seven-year-old best time.
It also took her to second on the world’s all-time U18 lists over the 76.2cm barriers, behind only Jamaican world U20 gold medallist Kerrica Hill’s best of 12.71 from 2022. It put her a full 0.50 ahead of the rest of the qualifiers for Friday’s semi finals and she is highly favoured for gold in tomorrow’s final.
“I didn't expect that,” she admitted afterwards. “I hoped to get a place in the semifinals with some adequate time, maybe in PB under 13.10 seconds. A time under 13 seconds and especially under 12.9 seconds, it was not even in my dreams.
“I believe in the semifinals, I can get another great result. It was very fast from the start, and I did not expect I ran away from girls so far. My plan was to slow down before finish, but when I felt girls are far away and I felt great, I chose to push until the end.”
Impressive sprint times
There were also impressive times in the men’s 110m hurdles where France’s Lucas Domergue, 15, set a European U18 lead with 13.32 (+1.3m/s) in winning heat four.
There were also impressive wins by Estonia’s Tristan Konso with 13.34 (1.9m/s) and Kyan Daniel Duffy Escalona from Italy also with 13.34 (+0.8m/s), both European U18 leading times before Domergue went even faster, in heats 2 and 3 respectively.
The women’s 100m final on Friday evening is also shaping up to be an exciting contest. In the heats, Miia Ott set a European U18 lead of 11.44 (+1.3m/s). Later in the session, Bulgaria’s Radina Velichkova set a national U18 best in winning the first semifinal in 11.47 (+0.7m/s).
Ott won the second semi in 11.54 (+0.4m/s) and Uliana Stepaniuk of Ukraine won the third semi final in 11.61 (+0.1m/s).
In the men’s 100m, Germany’s Jakob Kemminer emerged from the heats and semifinals as the one to watch in Friday’s final. He closed strongly to winning the third semi final in 10.42 (+0.3m/s), the fastest time of the day.
Great Britain’s Joel Masters with 10.45 (+1.7m/s) and Italy’s Francis Pala with a personal best of 10.51 (+1.7m/s) were next best.
Personal bests bolster Brown heptathlon bid
Great Britain’s Thea Brown is the overnight leader of the women’s heptathlon after three personal bests on day 1. In the morning session, Brown amazed the crowd with a world U18 lead in the high jump of 1.87m to consolidate a lifetime best of 13.18 (-0.6m/s) in the 100m hurdles.
In the shot put, Brown made it a hat-trick with 12.06m although Zola Ndouma-Mona of France took nearly 300 points out of the British athlete’s lead with a brilliant 16.43m, a championship record in the shot within the heptathlon. Brown rounded off a fine day’s work with 24.14 in the 200m (+1.2m/s). It all added up to an overnight total of 3796 points.
Finland’s Enni Virjonen lies in second with 3655, her outstanding performance of the day coming in the 100m hurdles, when she set a national U18 best of 13.12 (-0.6m/s) to set what was at the time a European U18 lead.
Her Nordic counterpart Evelina Olsson moves up to fifth overall after concluding the first day with a 23.65 clocking in the 200m, the fastest time of the day and also a championship best.
Krukowski the younger leads javelin qualifiers
As expected, Poland’s world U18 leader Roch Krukowski headed the qualifiers for the men’s javelin with 78.61m. But in Finland’s Roope Mäkipelto, he faces a stern challenge in Saturday’s final. He added a monster 5.26m onto is personal best to qualify second with 78.08m.
For Krukowski and his family, it is shaping up to be a big summer. “For Olympics in Paris, I will always cheer for my brother Marcin who will be there,” he said.
“If he stays healthy and technically stabile, he can make it to the final. But the field is very open. I like Weber too - he has a fine personality. If I win a medal here, and my brother in Paris, my father would be very happy.”
Poland’s Jakub Rodziak led the qualifiers in the men’s discus with a personal best with the 1.5kg implement of 62.14m. He was followed by European U18 leader Ludvig Ellgren of Sweden, who safely booked his passage to Friday’s final with 59.84m.
Batori through in high jump
The women’s high jump crown was won by new world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine in Gyor 2018 and is therefore a title that carries extra significance.
It was a hard fought qualification with seven athletes clearing 1.79m to book their place in Saturday’s final. Among them was Hungary’s Lilianna Bátori, who now shares the European U18 lead of 1.87m with Thea Brown, after the heptathlete’s morning heroics.
Spain’s Ana Estrella De Leon leapt to a personal best of 13.17m (+0.1m/s) to head the women’s triple jump qualifiers. Latvia’s European U18 leader Brenda Džiliana Apsīte also progressed with a best of 12.98 (+1.1m/s).
In the women’s 1500m heats, Poland’s Oksana Pestka led the qualifiers with a personal best of 4:22.56 by winning heat 2.
Norway’s European U18 leader Wilma Anna Bekkemoen Torbiörnss was an impressive winner of heat one in 4:23.23 to secure a place in Sunday’s final. Aldin Ćatović of Serbia led the men’s 1500m qualifiers, winning heat 1 in 3:55.61.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics