Germany’s Clara Hegemann and Poland’s Jakub Rodziak landed world U18 leads in the women’s hammer and men’s discus finals respectively on an evening high on quality at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica on Friday (19).
The women’s hammer final was the first medal event of the championships, and it set the tone for the night ahead.
The competition exploded into life in third round when Ukraine’s Polina Dzerozhynska took the world U18 lead from Hegemann with 72.92m. It is also a new world best for a 15-year-old. But Hegemann showed a mean competitive streak and she responded with a fourth round throw that retook the world lead by just 1cm.
It was just about good enough for gold, with Dzerozhynska settling for silver and a new age best. Germany’s Nova Kienast took bronze in with an impressive fifth round 71.72m.
“I am still speechless,” said Hegemann. “I still have not realised that I actually managed to win the European title. We all were so strong and targeting the top positions, nothing was granted. Despite the fact that I was the leader on the paper, I did not expect such great result. It was very tough competition, but I tried my best and only one centimetre decided in the end.”
And the silver medallist was equally ebullient. “It's the best result in my career and I can't be happier. I throw my hammer almost 2 metres further than my PB and I'm very proud of myself. I lost only by a centimetre, that's sport. I have to show better throw in the future and I will get a gold medal,” she pledged.
Rodziak training brings golden glory
In the men’s discus, Poland’s Jakub Rodziak set a brilliant world U18 lead with a third round throw of 64.21m, it added 3.21 metres to his best coming into the championships to clinch gold. Silver went to Ukraine’s Yaroslav Lystopad with 60.93m and bronze to Ireland’s Cian Crampton with 60.55m, a national U18 best.
“Coming to Banska (Bystrica), I knew I was well prepared as my training was good,” said the gold medallist. “But I did not expect it to fly so far. I saw already in the qualifications that it was going far and now it is gold. I am already looking forward to the next throwing and next competitions. I still hope that I can get close to the national record or even to break it.”
Maria Rafailidou underscored her status as world U18 lead by winning the women’s shot put with a second round 18.46m leaving her well clear of the rest. Indeed, all six of her throws were good enough for gold.
With a sixth-round effort of 17.09m, Anhelina Shepel from Ukraine moved into the medal fray with silver while Anastasia Andreadi ensured two Greek throwers on the podium with bronze (16.70m).
Virjonen clinches heptathlon gold
Finland’s Enni Virjonen secured the women’s heptathlon gold after running 2:26.10 in the final 800m event.
Earlier in the day, her enormous heptathlon championship record throw of 51.59m in the javelin had enabled her to seize control of the competition from the overnight leader Thea Brown of Great Britain, who could only manage 27.41m.
Virjonen totalled a world U18 lead of 6151 points across the seven disciplines with Brown logging her fourth personal best over two days, clocking 2:27.99 to finish on 5807 to win silver. The bronze medal went down the finest margin of all, with Germany’s Maria Schnemilich finishing on 5732, just one point ahead of France’s Zola Ndouma-Mona.
“We have two very hard days behind us,” said Virjonen. “It was a great experience for me and a lot of different emotions. I do well (in) hurdles and javelin, it was amazing. I failed in high jump this time, but lucky me other events worked for me. It was surprise for me, that in the javelin was so big difference between me and Thea Brown.”
Mourie shocks Inzoli to win long jump
There was a surprise in the men’s long jump. European U18 leader Daniele Inzoli was out of sorts, fouling five of his six attempts. His only recorded leap being a third round 7.54m (-0.3m/s). It gave an opportunity to his lower ranked rivals, and they took full advantage.
France’s Remi Mourie landed a fifth round personal best of 7.72m (+1.9m/s) to win gold, whilst Hungary’s Áron Hajdu also produced a fifth round lifetime best. His mark of 7.58m (+1.9m/s) was also a new national U18 bronze. A disconsolate Inzoli had to settle for bronze as his final leap ended in another foul.
Mourie’s winning leap was a 28cm improvement on his lifetime best coming into the competition and he was understandably thrilled. “This is an unbelievable evening for me, and I have never imagined to become a European champion,” he said.
“This is my first major international competition, and I was not expecting anything like this. Actually, I did not know what to expect. I am just gaining experiences.”
Apsite grabs second ever gold for Latvia
Brenda Apsīte became only the second ever European U18 gold medallist from Latvia, following men’s javelin winner Kristaps Jaunpujens in Tbilisi 2016, when she won the women’s triple jump final. She edged into the lead in the fourth round with 13.11m (+0.5m/s), just 1cm ahead of Greece’s Melina Zaragka’s second round 13.10m (+1.2m/s).
When gold was secured after Zaragka could not improve on her best, Apsīte, the European U18 leader, underlined victory with a final round 13.18m (+0.2m/s). Italy’s Elisa Valenti won bronze with an opening round leap of 12.99m (+0.7m/s).
Di Fabio walks to gold
Pre-race favourite Serena Di Fabio showed her class as she won the women’s 5000m race walk, smashing the championship record in the process.
Like men's 110m hurdles winner Kyan Kyle Duffy Escalona, she also emulated the European blueprint of her senior teammate from Roma 2024, where Antonella Palmisano won the women’s 20km race walk.
The Italian stretched away from the field to win in in a world U18 lead of 21:50.80, taking nearly one minute off Belarus' Hanna Zubkova’s six year old best of 22:45.47 from Gyor 2018. Alessia Pop of Romania tried to go with Di Fabio in the early stages. But settled for silver and a new national U18 best of 22:03.11.
Bronze initially went to Serbia’s Dunja Eremić but after she was penalised for lifting, the destination of this medal went in the direction of Petra Kusa who won Slovakia's first medal of the championships with bronze in a lifetime best of 23:15.46.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics