Two weeks after claiming the world U18 high jump title in Nairobi, Kenya with a world age-15 outdoor best of 1.92m, Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh cleared 1.89m to claim the title at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Gyor, Hungary.
Mahuchikh looked poised to return to Gyor next summer in search of more silverware as the Hungarian city will be staging the second edition of the European Athletics U18 Championships.
Mahuchikh claimed one of three gold medals for Ukraine in Gyor with all three titles coming in the technical events. Myhaylo Kokhan followed up his world U18 hammer title with another dominant victory, throwing the 5kg implement out to 78.28m to defeat Artur Maskalenko from Belarus (71.36m) by seven metres while Oleksiy Kyrylin upgraded his silver medal from Nairobi with gold in the 1.5kg discus with 60.74m.
However, the Netherlands topped the medal table with seven gold medals across the six-day programme which concluded on Saturday (29).
The future of sprinting in the Netherlands looks in safe hands as 14-year-old Minke Bisschops clocked a lifetime best of 11.71 in the 100m semifinal before winning the final in a heavy wind-aided 11.52 while Zoe Sedney - the sister of Naomi, who ran the last leg of the gold medal-winning 4x100m team at the European Championships last summer - claimed an unusual double, winning gold medals in the 200m (23.74) and the 100m hurdles (13.37).
France and Finland also excelled in Gyor, claiming four gold medals apiece. Aurelien Larue claimed a 100/200m double on the men’s side, setting wind-assisted marks of 10.61 and 21.64 to secure both titles ahead of Norway’s Stephan Skogheim Kyeremeh - 10.68 and 21.66 - while the Finns claimed both javelin titles with Topias Laine winning the men’s 700g javelin with 74.74m and Julia Valtanen winning the women’s 500g javelin with 58.11m.
Two weeks after winning the world U18 heptathlon title, 16-year-old Maria Vicente from Spain showed her versatility by claiming the triple jump title with a wind-aided 13.72m while Norway’s Pal Haugen Lillefosse, who recently equaled Armand Duplantis’ European age-15 best of 5.35m, cleared 5.00m in blustery conditions to secure the title.