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It's Swede success for the relay men

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Host nation Sweden won their first gold medal of these 23rd European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna with a national junior record in the 4x100m relay.

The quartet of Emil Von Barth, 19, Austin Hamilton, 17, Thobias Nilsson Montler,19, and Gustav Kjell,19, combined to win in 39.73 from Poland (40.00) and France (40.02) to spark scenes of jubilation at the Ekängen Arena.

Even though there were two yellow flags which the officials looked at after the race, it did not affect Sweden, but they still had to wait for the official announcement.

The foursome then set off a fabulous lap of honour to the delight of the packed crowd.

They won gold with a series of fine baton changes and Kjell knew what was needed as he grabbed the stick on the last changeover.

He said: 'All that was going through my mind was to 'run, run, run’.

'It is really cool to be the ones to win the first gold medal, for us as team it is fantastic. We knew that we had the pressure on us but we were relaxed.

'It is the party tonight with all the European juniors and then when the season is over we can really party.'

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Stoj serves up something special

With his first two throws of arguably the greatest discus final in the history of the European Athletics Junior Championships, Poland's Bartlomiej Stoj, 19, suffered fouls. His next reached 64.09m and by the time he took to the ring for round four, the favourite, and world junior champion, Croatia's Martin Markovic, also 19, had broken the championship record with a brilliant 66.66m.

Stoj composed himself, spun with preciseness and then launched his own way into legendary status.

He waited as the 1.75kg discus flew and landed at an amazing national junior mark of 68.02m, wiping out Markovic's record within minutes as Stoj set himself up for gold.

The Croatian was not finished yet, with a 67.11m in the next round, but the winning blow had been struck on a day when the previous record held by Ukraine's Mykyta Nesterenko of 65.73m had stood since Novi Sad in 2009.

Germany's Henning Prufer won bronze with 64.18m from his first and only throw, as he then suffered five successive fouls.

De Coninck is in dreamland

Nenah de Coninck ran the race of her life to win 400m gold as she fulfilled the aim she set herself a year ago.

The Belgian 18-year-old triumphed from the outside lane in a personal best (57.85), battling home to narrowly beat Inge Drost, who won the first medal of the week for the Netherlands in a personal best (57.88), with Italy's Ayomide Folorunso third (58.44).

De Coninck said: 'I made the semi-finals at the world junior championships in Eugene last year and I was so disappointed with my time (1:02.33) that after that race I said 'next year I will become European junior champion'. I set myself that goal and I cannot believe it has come true.'

She celebrated with endless team members and friends and the biggest hugs were reserved for her parents and younger brother in the main stand, a family moment that they will long remember.

Coroller triumphs despite injury

Backed by the cheers of his French teammates, Victor Coroller, 18, was the clear winner of the men's 400m hurdles (50.53) and thanked those around him for getting him to the start line.

As he beat Germany's Joshua Abuaku, (51.46), and Dominik Hufnagl of Austria (51.74), who both ran personal bests.

Coroller said: 'It is great to win gold despite a foot injury that forced me to adjust the amount of steps between the hurdles from 15 to 14. I am grateful for the great medical team and the support from family and the French team.'

Hufnagl said: 'Simply - I feel great. My goal was to get to the final and I would have been happy with fourth to eighth, so this bronze is awesome.'



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