It only took Angelina Topic six weeks to graduate to the senior podium in Munich after winning European U18 high jump gold in Jerusalem and the rising Serbian star will return to the Givat Ram Stadium with realistic ambitions of winning not one but two gold medals at the European Athletics U20 Championships.
The European Athletics U20 Championships will be streamed in its entirety from 7-10 August on the All-Athletics platform through the European Athletics website. Up to four additional streams will be available on the All-Athletics platform, providing dedicated coverage of the field events in the Givat Ram Stadium.
- Final entries here
Topic, who has improved her Serbian record to 1.97m this year, will begin as the overwhelming favourite to land the high jump title but the 18-year-old has also been making quiet but steady progress in her secondary event, the long jump.
At her national championships last weekend, Topic won the high jump in routine fashion with a 1.90m clearance before taking three attempts at a prospective national record of 1.98m and she demonstrated her all-around ability with victory in the long jump with a lifetime best of 6.58m.
In the context of the European Athletics U20 Championships, that performance nudges Topic to the top of a crowded 2023 European U20 list, just ahead of Germany’s Samira Attermeyer (6.55m) and Bulgaria’s Plamena Mitkova (6.54m), the reigning world U20 champion.
If Topic was to pull off the double, she would emulate Italy’s Mattia Furlani who swept both titles at the European Athletics U18 Championships in the same stadium last year but no athlete - male or female - has achieved this double in the long and venerable history of these championships which dates back to 1970.
And the enduring championship record of 1.95m - which was set by Yelena Yelesina in 1989 and matched by another future Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene in 2011 - could also be on her radar. At every turn, Topic could create history at the Givat Ram Stadium next week.
Topic’s teammate Adriana Vilagos had to settle for silver in the javelin behind soon-to-be European senior champion Elina Tzengko two years ago but with the Greek - who won the 2022 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year accolade - now ensconced in the U23 ranks, the path should be clear for Vilagos to upgrade to the gold medal. She is the only athlete to break the 60 metre-line with a season’s best of 61.87m.
This is shaping up to be a bumper championship for Serbia whose athletes lead the entry-list in no fewer than six events and more gold could be heading Serbia’s way in the triple jump, assuming the formbook plays out.
Aleksandrija Mitrovic leads the entry-list in the triple jump with 13.43m albeit by the narrowest of margins ahead of Italy’s Erika Giorgia Anoeta Saraceni (13.42m), Ukraine’s Svitlana Boichuk (13.41m) and reigning European U18 champion Clemence Rougier (13.40m) from France.
The Jana and Klara show comes to Jerusalem
This is also shaping up to be a good championships for the Koscak sisters who could leave Jerusalem with a pair of gold medals for their efforts.
Jana Koscak is one of the world’s most exciting combined events prospects and her older sister Klara is keeping pace with her precocious younger sibling and leads the entry-list in the 100m hurdles.
- Listen to an exclusive interview with Jana Koscak here.
Koscak dominated the heptathlon at the European Athletics U18 Championships last summer and the 17-year-old has made sterling progress since then. The Croatian received an invitation to compete in the prestigious Gotzis Hypo-Meeting in May when she revised the world U18 best with 6293 points.
The heptathlon could be a case of catch Koscak if you can. She is especially strong on the first day and would have contended for medals in both the 100m hurdles and high jump courtesy of her respective lifetime bests of 13.26 and 1.92m.
But with Jana focusing on the heptathlon, this increases the possibility of her older sister Klara taking home the title in the 100m hurdles. She has the fastest entry time at 13.22 and she has also entered the 400m hurdles and 4x100m relay at these championships.
The entry-list for the 100m hurdles also features Great Britain's Mia McIntosh, an impressive winner of this title at the European Athletics U18 Championships last summer.
Precocious Caune poised to strike in the long distances
The 3000/5000m double has only been achieved twice in the history of the European Athletics U20 Championships - by Turkiye's Elvan Abeylegesse in 2001 and Germany's Alina Reh in 2015 - but rising Latvian distance running prodigy Agate Caune looks poised to add her name to this select list.
In conditions which won’t be too dissimilar to the expected conditions in Jerusalem, Caune ran away with the 5000m in hot and humid conditions at the European Athletics Team Championships 2nd Division in Silesia - her time of 15:15.21 was the fastest across the three divisions - before clocking 8:39.78 for 3000m in the same arena in the Silesia Diamond League.
This time puts her second on the European U20 all-time list behind Zola Budd’s enduring mark of 8:28.83 from 1985.
Caune won 5000m silver at the age of 16 at the 2021 European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn and with another two years of training and experience under her belt, the Latvian will be looking to turn her solitary silver from Tallinn into two gold medals in Jerusalem.
Sofia Thøgersen will be hoping the same adage applies to her prospects next week. The precocious Dane, who won silver in the 3000m less than two weeks after celebrating her 16th birthday two years ago, looks set to cross paths with Caune in the 3000m and 5000m but she has the fastest lifetime best in the 1500m by over three seconds at 4:11.08.
One of the key clashes of the championships features reigning European U20 800m champion Audrey Werro from Switzerland against Great Britain’s Abigail Ives, both of whom have broken the two minute-barrier this year with season’s bests of 1:59.67 and 1:59.92 respectively.
And with Werro’s penchant for front running, could the championship record of 2:00.25 which dates all the way back to 1983 be rewritten next week?
An even longer-standing championships record which could be revised in Jerusalem is the women’s 400m record of 51.27 set by East Germany’s Christina Brehmer in 1975.
The silver medallist at the European Athletics U18 Championships two years ago, 18-year-old Lurdes Gloria Manuel from the Czech Republic made a huge improvement at the Czech Championships, finishing second in a massive lifetime best of 51.23 which makes her the fastest entrant by more than one-and-a-half seconds.
Great Britain topped the medal table in Tallinn two years ago with six gold medals.
Their leading prospects in the women’s events next week include reigning European U18 champions Nia Wedderburn-Goodison and Faith Akinbileje in the 100m and 200m respectively and both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
Steven Mills for European Athletics