It was an Italian long jumper who provided one of the highlights of the last European Athletics U18 Championships two years ago in Jerusalem, with Mattia Furlani becoming the first European U18 athlete to jump more than eight metres outdoors when he flew to a championship record 8.04m.
The Banska Bystrica European 2024 Athletics U18 Championships will be streamed live from start to finish throughout all four days via the European Athletics website and there will also be up to three additional streams providing uninterrupted and dedicated field event coverage.
It's that mark that Furlani’s compatriot, 15-year-old Daniele Inzoli, has in his sights having already jumped 7.90m – a world age-15 best – this summer and he is not shy to admit that Furlani and his superlatives has been an inspiration to him.
“It's a great incentive also because I met him [Furlani] before he started long jumping, I knew that he was a boy with many abilities and I was sure that he could do well. Seeing that there is an athlete who achieves great results is always a stimulus," reflected Inzoli.
Another mentor has been his brother Francesco, who took bronze behind Furlani in the Jerusalem long jump competition as well as gold as part of the Italian mixed relay quartet.
Inzoli will nevertheless have to be at his very best in Banska Bystrica as just 15cm on this year’s European U8 lists between himself and Krzysztof Grochowski who set a Polish U18 best of 7.75m last month.
Grochowski is part of a very strong Polish team who, among others are banking on gold from javelin thrower Roch Krukowski.
Krukowski threw a Polish U18 best of 81.60m last year and showed he was peaking at the right time with an 80.60m performance to win his national U18 title just over a week ago.
Like Inzoli, Krukowski also has an older brother to look up to with Paris-bound Marcin Krukowski being a two-time World Athletics Championships finalist as well as the Polish record holder with the senior implement with 89.55m.
Inzoli and Krukowski are two of the four Europeans who head the men’s world U18 list in the field events.
Hammer thrower Thomas Williams could be the first Irishman to strike European U18 gold and the 16-year-old tops the world list with 77.31m, having made three improvements this summer to his own Irish U18 record that he first acquired last summer when he was just 15.
In similar fashion to Ireland, no Swedish U18 male athlete has stood on top of the podium at this event but Ludvig Ellgren leads the world with the 1.5kg implement 63.42m last month.
He is over a metre ahead of Ukraine’s recently-minted Balkan U18 champion Yaroslav Lystopad who threw 61.79m when winning that title just over a week ago in maribor, Slovenia.
Ellgren is also entered in the shot but with a personal best of 18.10m might find it a tall order to take two medals in Banska Bystrica.
Croatia’s Jan Ferina has had two competitions over 20 metres this summer and can boast of a European U18 list-leading but 20.20m into second place at the Balkan U18 Championships by Romania’s Stefan Alexandru Ciobanu who improved dramatically to win in the last round with a personal best of 20.17m.
Five European U18 men have cleared five metres or better in the pole vault this year but Sweden’s Axel Rogö is the clear favourite having gone over 5.25m, nine centimetres better than anyone else.
In the other jumps, little separates Belgium’s Lorenzo Nys and Ireland’s Conor Penney on paper in the men’s high jump with them both having cleared personal bests of 2.10m and 2.09m respectively this summer but the quality of performances in this event is more modest than previous championship years and it appears feasible that one of a number of other jumpers could spring a surprise.
Ukrainian triple jumper Stanislas Havriliuk will go to Banska Bystrica full of confidence after going well over 15 metres in his last two competition.
Havriliuk finished third at the Ukraine senior championships two weeks ago with a personal best of 15.57m, the best by a European U18 athlete this year, and then followed this up winning the Balkan U18 title with 15.46m just over a week ago.
The decathlon could develop into a fantastic head-to-head duel between Estonia’s Tristan Konso and Sweden’s Luis Belo Da Silva.
Only three points separates them on the 2024 lists with Konso having scored 7337 points for a national U18 best at last month’s Baltic U18 Championships, no mean feat considering his country’s fantastic tradition in the male combined events, and has marks which would stand up to comparison with some of his senior counterparts such a a 4.50m pole vault best.
Belo Da Silva put together a total of 7334 to win at last month’s Nordic Championships and is a better thrower than his rival although not as quick in the track events.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics