Sander Skotheim broke his own European heptathlon record to win gold at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships, his first international title at any level.
The Norwegian finished first with a championship best time of 2:32.72 in the 1000m, giving him a score of 6558 points after seven events, which is also third on the world all-time list.
He improved on his own recent continental record of 6484, set last month, along with Frenchman Kevin Mayer's 6479-point championship record from 2017.
Silver streak turns into gold
It followed an unfortunate streak of five silver medals across four international championships for Skotheim, including last year's decathlon at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.
In what was largely an expected result coming into the evening's session, Switzerland's Simon Ehammer took the silver medal, finishing nine seconds behind in 2:41.76. His overall personal best score of 6506 was also over the old European record, putting him fifth on the world all-time list.
Till Steinforth also ended the event with a lifetime best to take bronze. But the German only held onto his advantage by eight points, as European decathlon champion Johannes Erm of Estonia raced to the line just behind Skotheim in an agonisingly-close end to the two-day event.
In all, it lived up to its billing as a brilliant head-to-head rivalry. Ehammer, the early leader, was always likely to relinquish his advantage in the high jump and Skotheim climbed brilliantly over 2.19m in what will probably be seen as the most important points swing of the competition.
The Swiss athlete came fighting back in the 60m hurdles, but by the time that the pair were equal in the pole vault with 5.10m, the door was firmly ajar for Skotheim, given his near thirteen-second advantage on 1000m personal bests.
Trimming that gap to nine seconds in Apeldoorn may well be a source of confidence to Ehammer, as he looks to hold onto future leads and end competitions stronger.
Perfect record seals gold for 2.34-jumper Doroshchuk
Ukraine's Oleh Doroshchuk brilliantly maintained a perfect record throughout the competition to win high jump gold with a sensational world-leading jump of 2.34. The 23-year-old, who won European bronze outdoors last summer, was a class above the field as he achieved six-consecutive first-time clearances.
In doing so, he improved on his own world lead and personal best, which had been the 2.32 jump he achieved when winning the Ukrainian title last month.
Czechia's Jan Štefela did his best to stay competitive with his rival. His first time clearance at 2.29 kept him in the hunt and ultimately helped him to an eventual silver medal.
With Doroshchuk's beautiful technique getting the crowd excited, Štefela still gave it his all. He passed after two failures at 2.32 and was unable to make the most of one last-ditch shot to stay in the hunt for gold at 2.34. That left Doroshchuk clear and untouchable as the champion.
Behind the Czech jumper on countback, Italian champion Matteo Sioli, 19, improved on his lifetime best by one centimetre to take the bronze.
With an average age of 21 years, perhaps it may be fitting to suggest that the three medallists have given us a glimpse of the future of European men's high jumping.
Moser impresses with third European title
If Swiss fans were disappointed that Simon Ehammer was unable to hold onto the gold medal in the heptathlon, they would have been delighted when Angelica Moser cleared 4.80m to win her third European pole vault title.
In a result reminiscent of her first title in Torun in 2021, the-27-year-old kept her composure as others faltered around her.
The sense of déjà vu was exacerbated by Slovenia’s Tina Šutej repeating her silver medal for a third consecutive time at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, with a best of 4.75m.
France's Marie-Julie Bonnin added to her European U20 silver medal and European U23 gold with bronze in Apeldoorn, to give her a rounded set of three medals at three different age groups.
The event initially appeared to be quite a level playing field, with the main contenders all looking reasonably comfortable until the height of 4.70m seemed to ruffle a few feathers.
Šutej was the only athlete who cleared it straight away.
By the time the bar went up to 4.75m, the rate of attrition was higher still. Bonnin went out with a best of 4.70m, but took the final medal spot on countback.
But it was at this point where Moser impressed the most, calmly sailing over the top of 4.80m, with the experienced Šutej having no response.
Alex Seftel for European Athletics