Another familiar name topped the podium in the men’s high jump final on the final morning session of the Jerusalem 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships on Thursday (10).
Watched on coolly from the sidelines by 2004 Olympic champion Stefan, his son Melwin Lycke Holm won a tight and tense final on countback from Italy’s pre-competition favourite Edoardo Stronati with a crucial first-time 2.18m clearance.
“My plan was to try to clear every height at the first attempt which I did and that's actually what got me the gold at the end,” he said.
In doing so, Melwin far exceeded his father’s best ever showing at a European Athletics U20 Championships. Stefan finished 11th and seventh respectively in 1993 and 1995 before blossoming into one of the world’s best jumpers in the early-to-mid 2000s.
And Melwin, who is also coached by Stefan, has aspirations of bettering his father’s vast any many achievements as a senior.
“I try to do my own thing. In Sweden I'm tired of everyone saying ‘Melwin's father won the Olympic gold, he’s jumping high because he did it’ so I'm trying to go my own way. We actually jump from different feet. I would like to be better than my father and to do that I'd have to win the Olympic gold and jump 2.40m, I think that's a good goal,” he said.
Slovak Republics’s Robert Ruffini, whose father of the same name won silver for Czechoslovakia in the same event in 1985 and is still the Slovak Y20 record holder with 2.24m, also added another medal to the family coffers with bronze at 2.15m.
First ever field event gold medal for Ireland
After victory in the high jump last night, Angelina Topic had aspirations of becoming the first athlete in history to sweep the high jump and long jump titles at the European Athletics U20 Championships.
But four outings in as many days in hot and gruelling conditions seemed to catch up with the rising Serbian star who had to settle for a sixth-place finish with a best of 6.42m.
In a volatile and ever-changing competition, Ireland’s Elizabeth Ndudi seized the lead in the second round with an Irish U20 record of 6.48m before going back into the lead, and extending her record, with 6.56m in the third round.
This mark narrowly withstood the impending challenge of Bulgaria’s Plamena Mitkova who jumped 6.54m and 6.53m respectively in the fourth and fifth rounds to add European U20 silver to her world U20 title from last year.
Germany’s Laura Muller won bronze with a lifetime best of 6.51m while last year’s European U18 champion Ayla Hollberg Hossain from Sweden just missing the podium with a sixth round lifetime best of 6.50m.
For Ireland, this was a historic gold medal - their first ever in a field event in European Athletics U20 Championships history. And for Ndudi, this represents a redemptive performance after finishing out of the medals at the U18 Championships last July.
“Last year, I was very disappointed with my place finishing seventh. I owed it to myself. I made sure that I stayed really confident about my jumping despite the fact that the first was a foul. It is just a huge improvement for me and another national U20 record.
“This year, I was definitely training more and I improved mentally too. Last year, I was a bit nervous and I think that is why I could not get that big jump. But today, I came with full confidence. It is probably very ambitious but my main goal is to get to the Olympics in Paris next year because that is where I live now,” said Ndudi.
Another golden session for the Germans
It was Germany all the way in the discus final. Curly Brown only scraped through into the final in 12th but the European U18 champion uncorked a sixth-round lifetime best of 53.93m to displace her compatriots Milina Weipwe (53.83m) and Lea Bork (53.46m).
“In the last attempt, I was a bit shocked that I threw so far. I did not think that I could win this competition. It was like a deja-vu because I managed to win the U18 championships in Jerusalem and now, I am the U20 champion,” she said.
The German juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down in Jerusalem as the session also began with Frederick Weigel - the son of the 1983 world 50km race walk champion Ronald - also following up his European U18 title from last year with gold in the 10,000m race walk in a lifetime best of 41:53.58.
With one session remaining and a glut of medal chances to come, the Germans sit atop the medal table with six gold medals and 18 in total.
Steven Mills for European Athletics