There was a dramatic finale to the men’s long jump final at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Championships on Friday (7) as Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Sarâboyukov beat pre-event favourite Mattia Furlani by 1cm with a final round leap.
It reversed a result from the Jerusalem 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships where the Italian won gold by a single centimetre with 8.23m from Sarâboyukov.
Final round heroics
Both athletes enjoyed U20 careers as multi-talented jumpers, Furlani boasts a European U18 high jump gold and Sarâboyukov won world U20 high jump silver in 2022 and also added triple jump silver at Jerusalem in 2023.
But since joining the senior ranks, it is Furlani who made the most seamless transition. Last year, he won Olympic bronze, world indoor silver and European silver, the latter in a world U20 record of 8.38m. In each instance, Miltiadis Tentoglou came out top, but with Greek athlete absent due to illness, the favourite mantle shifted to the young Italian.
But this time it was the Bulgarian who rose highest to the occasion.
Furlani looked slightly out of sorts, struggling with his run up with a second round effort of 8.10m his only successful mark in the first four rounds. But in the fifth round, he leapt to 8.12m, equal to the leading mark set by Spain’s Lester Lescay in round two.
But by virtue of his 8.10m as his next best, Furlani hung on to gold medal position going into the last round. At this point, Sarâboyukov was back in fifth place with a best of 7.94m.
But, sensing an opportunity, he turned the competition on its head flying out to 8.13m in the final round. He celebrated with a back flip as Furlani faced up to needing a gold medal winning jump in the final round.
He went close with 8.09m, but had to settle for silver as the Bulgarian celebrated the biggest success of his career to date. Lescay took bronze with his single valid jump.
Peleteiro-Compaore regains crown
Ana Peleteiro-Compaoré regained the women’s triple jump title that she last won at Glasgow 2019. Now the undisputed European queen of women’s triple jump with gold in Apeldoorn to go alongside her success last year outdoors at Roma 2024, she took a firm grip on proceedings from the second round with 14.20m.
In the fifth round, she extended her advantage with a leap of 14.37m, which proved crucial. In the penultimate jump of the competition, Romania’s Diana Ana Maria Ion produced a comparable jump and it left Peleteiro-Compaoré nervously awaiting the measurement.
But despite a new personal best, it left Ion just six centimetres short, and the Spaniard could celebrate. For Ion, it meant silver and a first major medal. Bronze went to Finland’s Senni Salminen with a final round 13.99m and another athlete making her first senior international podium.
Karalis eases through in pole vault
In the men’s pole vault qualifying round, Greece’s Olympic bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis, who cleared 6.02m on the eve of the championships in Clermont-Ferrand, had a safe passage to Sunday’s final with first time clearances at 5.65m and 5.75m.
Experienced Dutch vaulter Menno Vloon also qualified in routine fashion with a flawless card giving some hope to the home crowd he can land a first ever major medal.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics