The Balkan U18 Championships in Maribor, Slovenia last weekend saw a number of athletes with medal ambitions set out their stall ahead of the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia between 18-21 July, none more so than Croatian javelin thrower Vita Barbic.
The 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.
Barbic – who finished just out of the medal in fourth place at last year’s European Athletics U20 Championships as a 15-year-old - threw 57.81m to move to the top of the 2024 world U18 lists and she is now more than four metres clear of her nearest rival, German U18 champion Konstanze Irlinger.
Moreover, Barbic can point to a best of 60.48m from last year, also set in Maribor en route to winning the European Youth Olympic Festival title, and so it’s inevitable that she will have the championship record of 60.89m – set at the inaugural championships in 2016 by Norway’s Ariane Duarte Morais – in her sights as well as a gold medal.
For good measure, the talented Barbic is also entered in the discus and with a best of 48.34 to win the Croatian U18 title last month, she has a chance of a medal in this event as well.
However, the role of favourite for discus gold falls to Spain’s Andrea Njimi Tankeu Djeudji, who threw a national U18 best and European lead of 51.85m last weekend. The Spaniard has also entered the shot put having won both U18 titles domestically at the start of the month.
Hungarian jumpers in fine form
European Athletes top the world U18 lists in no less than six of the eight jumps and throws with the Hungarian pair of Lilianna Batori and Bori Rózsahegyi leading the way in the high jump and long jump with 1.87m and 6.37m respectively.
Like Barbic, both have valuable international experience under their belts having competed in both the European Youth Olympic Festival – with Rózsahegyi winning in Maribor – and at the European Athletics U20 Championships where they made the finals of their specialist events before both finishing, coincidently, 11th.
The world U18 shot put lists has Greece’s María Rafailídou at the top, her 18.70m when winning the Greek U18 title last month propelling her above Belgium’s 2023 European Youth Olympic Festival winner Nafy Thiam, no relation to the reigning European and Olympic heptathlon champion, who reached 18.43m indoors this winter.
Greece also has a good gold medal hope in the pole vault with Anastasia Bouboulidl leading the European lists with 4.25m and looking to follow in the footsteps of Iliana Triantafillou who won in 2022.
Hegemann and Kienast out to restore German hammer pride
Considering the country’s historic strength in the women’s hammer it might be a surprise to realise that no German so far has won a European U18 medal but with Clara Hegemann and her compatriot Nova Kienast sitting on top of the world U18 list with 72.66m and 72.17m, it looks likely that fact may be rendered to history in Banska Bystrica.
The rivalry may push them to new territory as well. Hegemann set the German U18 best last month but Kienast turned the tables and threw a personal best to win the German title in Monchengladbach last month.
Brenda Džiliana Apsīte is the favourite for the triple jump and her Latvian U18 best of 13.50m in May is 33 centimetres better than any other European. She will also be bidding for a medal in the long jump as well with the view of doubling her country's gold medal count of just one previous title at the European U18s.
The women’s heptathlon has been one of the most outstanding events in the history of the European Athletics U18 Championships with Ukraine’s Alina Skukh and then Spain’s Maria Vicente setting world U18 bests in 2016 and 2018.
Consequently, Finland’s Enni Virjonen has a hard act to follow but with her tally of 5948 points set on home soil in Tampere – venue for next year’s European Athletics U20 Championships where Virjonen and every other competitor in Banska Bystrica will hope to compete – back in May, she is more than 400 points ahead of her nearest rival on paper.
She will be looking for a good start in the very first event on the championships programme on Thursday, the 100m hurdles heptathlon heats, as she is the holder of the Finnish U18 best with 13.16 and second on the European U18 list for the year.
Sadly for Virjonen, the timetable in Banska Bystrica is not very accommodating to this particular double and she has decided to just concentrate on the heptathlon.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics
(Photo of Vita Barbic © Croatian Olympic Committee/Slobodan Kadić)