Serbia’s Angelina Topic capped her stellar junior career with victory in the high jump on the final day of the World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima on Saturday (31) evening.
Less than a month after missing the Olympic high jump final in Paris due to an ankle injury where she was expected to challenge for a medal, the 19-year-old ended her season on a high note by taking the gold medal with a 1.91m clearance.
This is Topic’s third major age-group title after winning European U18 and U20 gold medals in 2022 and 2023 and the Serbian, who was crowned 2023 women’s Rising Star at the Golden Tracks, will be looking to add further honours to her already extensive list of accolades at next year's European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen.
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"It is really crazy to be here because I think the rest of the world saw that I broke my foot four weeks ago in the Olympics and it also broke my heart.
"I really didn't know what to expect for not just this season, but my career as well. I started walking 10 days ago. We came here without any training for the past three weeks and two weeks ago we did my first jumping training after what happened in the Olympics," said Topic.
Australia’s Izobelle Louison-Roe cleared a lifetime best of 1.89m to win silver on countback ahead of Estonia’s Karmen Bruus who had to settle for bronze after winning gold at the 2022 World Athletics U20 Championships.
Recently crowned European U18 champion Lilianna Batori from Hungary was an excellent fourth, equalling her lifetime best of 1.87m in the process.
Tumba threatens European U20 400m hurdles record
On the track, France’s Meta Tumba dominated the women’s 400m hurdles title, taking the gold medal by over one second in a national U20 record of 55.59 - her first sub-56 second performance.
From a historical standpoint, Tumba moves to fifth on the European U20 all-time list which is still headed by Romania’s Ionela Tirlea-Manolache’s enduring mark of 55.26 from 1995 and the 18-year-old still has one more year left in the U20 ranks to challenge this mark.
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Having won world U20 gold in Lima, Tumba will inevitably turn her attention to next year’s European Athletics U20 Championships which take place in Tampere, Finland in August.
Poland’s Wiktoria Gadajska won silver behind Tumba in a national U20 record of 56.87. Gadajska crossed the line in third-place but was promoted to a medal of a brighter hue after initial silver medallist Jasmine Robinson from the United States was disqualified for a lane infringement.
One of the stars of the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica in July, Czechia’s 17-year-old Michal Rada won silver in the men’s 400m hurdles final in a national U20 record of 49.30 in a close battle against Vance Nilsson who won gold for the United States from the inside lane in 49.26.
Finland’s Antti Sainio, who won European U20 silver last year, added the world U20 bronze medal to his list of achievements in 49.61.
After winning the shot put title on the first day of the championships, Jarno Van Daalen from the Netherlands won his second medal in Lima, producing a lifetime best of 62.22m to win silver in the discus behind Bryce Ruland from the United States with 62.59m.
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Finland’s Mico Lampinen won bronze with a lifetime best of 62.20m - and will be eligible for the European Athletics U20 Championships on home soil in Tampere next year - while European U18 and U20 champion Mykhailo Brudin from Ukraine had to settle for fourth with 61.69m.
Across the five days of competition, European athletes won 11 gold medals in total with Czechia and Croatia both winning two titles apiece to place eighth and ninth respectively on the medal table.
Steven Mills for European Athletics