Following her brilliant European U18 best of 12.86 a day earlier, expectations were sky high for Laura Frličková to win Slovakia’s first ever gold medal at the European Athletics U18 Championships.
And she duly delivered with another electrifying performance in the women’s 100m hurdles final at Banska Bystrica on Friday (19). The Slovak produced another blazing run to win in 12.97 (+0.2m/s). It was her second time under 13 seconds, following her mesmerising run in the heats the previous day.
World U18 leader coming into the event, Frličková only enhanced her reputation further with a faultless display of sprint hurdling. Germany’s Daryl Ndasi tried to go with the searing Slovak, but fell at the penultimate hurdle, which left Poland’s Zofia Rojek in silver with 13.33. France’s Auxane Kingue took bronze in a personal best of 13.37.
"These championships could not have gone better," said the jubilant winner.
"To win on the home soil - that is a dream of many athletes. I am so glad I managed to achieve my target and fulfilled my dream. It is even better because I am so happy for my team mate, my class mate and my room mate in one person - Petra Kusa who just won bronze in the race walk. We see each other every day on the trainings.
And how will the two medallists toast their medals? "We will not go to bed early tonight," said Frlickova. "We will celebrate."
Escalona emulates Simonelli with another Italian gold
Kyan Kyan Duffy Escalona made it a European double for Italy in the 110m hurdles this summer. Following the success of Lorenzo Simonelli at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, his young compatriot proved the depth of talent in Italian sprint hurdling.
He clocked a new European U18 lead of 13.22 (+1.1m/s) to storm to gold. France’s Lucas Domergue took silver with 13.34 and Bulgaria’s Hristiyan Kasabov took bronze with 13.47.
"To be honest, I did not even think I was going to win the gold," said Escalona. "I have had a lot of motivation so the fact that I was able to do this is insane. It is an awesome championships for me. I knew I could go sub 13.30 and wanted to run it when it counted so it was in the final.
"My dad is Cuban and my mum is Irish. It is a huge mixed family and I am so grateful for them because they take me to the training and support me in every time."
Sixth-placed Anthony Perez of Spain (13.51) had a packed schedule. He also took part in the evening’s long jump final, placing ninth with 7.06m.
Kemminer powers to 100m gold
In the men’s 100m final, Joel Masters was quickest away, but Germany’s Jakob Kemminer powered past to win gold by in 10.46. Masters took silver in 10.51 with his British team-mate Joel Ajayi winning bronze in 10.61.
In the women’s event, Bulgaria’s Radina Velichkova has improved throughout the competition, setting a new a new national U18 best of 11.47 in Thursday’s semi finals. She went quicker still in the final, running away in 11.46 (+0.9m/s).
France’s Shade Laporal won silver in a personal best of 11.54. European U18 leader Miia Ott of Estonia could not quite produce her best form and had to be content with bronze in 11.46.
“This is my dream come true. Winning my first European title - that makes me feel very happy and emotional,” said Velichkova.
“After all my preparation which was going well, I think I felt I was able to do that. I knew that if I manage to run faster that the preliminary rounds, I could do that. I think I managed to rest well between the runs. I stayed in the hotel and did not do much, just relaxed and it ended up with the gold medal. For Bulgaria, this means a lot.”
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics