When you think about Belgium and combined events exponents the first name that springs to mind is still a certain Nafissatou Thiam, but Noor Vidts continued to emerge from the shadow of her illustrious compatriot by retaining her World Athletics Indoor Championships pentathlon title on Friday.
The dcefending champion from 2022, Vidts started the day solidly with an 8.27 hurdles and then moved into the overall lead when she cleared 1.79m in the high jump.
She finished off the morning with a really good effort of 14.26m in the shot put, an indoor best, but slipped back to second behind Finland’s reigning European U23 heptathlon champion Saga Vanninen who was the best putter by almost a metre with her 15.01m
In the long jump, Vidts came into her own and reached 6.50m, just 10cm short of her lifetime best, and she closed the gap behind the Finn to just nine points.
However, as a better 800m runner, Vidts must have been confident that she could clinch gold again with a good run over four laps of Glasgow’s Emirates Arena and she did just that.
She crossed the line in 2:12.99, almost eight seconds faster than Vanninen who came home in 2:20.54. Vidts – Begium's second world indoor pentathlon winner after 2008 gold medallist and current European Athletics Council member Tia Hellebaut as it is one of the few accolades that the reigning Olympic and world heptathlon champion Thiam doesn’t have to her name – final tally of 4773 points was a personal best and world lead while Vanninen’s 4677 was a national record and she became Finland's first ever female world indoor medallist.
"Nothing went really bad but some things were just so-so but I am very happy with the long jump and the shot put and, of course, with the win. I think the whole field had a lot of young athletes and they are doing really well. It gives us a nice feeling for Paris. I have things to work on but I am looking forward to the rest of the season," said Vidts.
Completing an all-European pentathlon podium, the Netherlands’ Sophie Doktor finished third with 4571.
Sadly, in the early stages of the high jump, Maria Vicente, who had set a world lead and Spanish national record of 4728 in January and led after the hurdles with 8.07 completely ruptured her left Achilles tendon. The injury looks set to put paid her Olympic hopes as well as leading to a tearful departure from the competition.
Silvers for Mahuchikh and Ogunleye
Ukraine’s reigning world indoor champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh had to settle for silver on this occasion.
She was in the lead after going flawless up to and including 1.97m – although the Ukrainian was clearly not quite in the form that saw her clear a world-leading 2.04m in Cottbus back in January having clipped both 1.95m and 1.97m with her heels on her first attempt to leave the bar wobbling albeit still on the uprights – but couldn’t respond when Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers went over 1.99m on her third attempt.
"I do not know what was missing today [and what I needed] to jump higher because I need to check it in the video with my coach. I felt ready at the last two competitions, I think I did everything right, but I appreciate the silver medal a lot. Every medal is now very important," said Mahuchikh, who is now based most of the time in Belgium because of the war in her country.
Slovenia’s Lia Apostolovski was a surprise bronze medallist when she equalled her personal best of 1.95m at the first time of asking.
However, perhaps the biggest positive shock of the day from a European perspective came when Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye took the shot put silver in the first contest to be decided in Glasgow.
Ogunleye led through the first three rounds of a close contest in the morning on the opening day when she produced a big personal best of 20.19m with her opening effort, an improvement of 62cm over her previous best of 19.57m set earlier this winter.
She was overtaken by Canada’s Sarah Mitton who reached 20.20m in round four and then finished with 20.22m, as the German fouled three times with her last three puts, but nothing could diminish her delight.
ROUND ONE MAGIC 🪄
— Throwers Universe (@ThrowersUni) March 1, 2024
😳 Yemisi Ogunleye goes 20.19m to kick off the women’s Shot Put at World Indoor Championships… pic.twitter.com/OcEIlcwfQ3
“It's unbelievable what happened today. To get that 20-metre throw in right on the spot with my first attempt is surreal. I woke up this morning and opened my bible and read a verse that said, ‘Be bold, be strong for the Lord thy God is with you’ and I went into this world championship with that verse, saying "You are gonna be bold and strong and confident. You deserve to be here, and you can do more than you can even ask,” commented Ogunleye.
By contrast, Italy’s 2023 World Athletics Championships silver medallist Leonardo Fabbri cut a contrastingly and slightly disappointed figure despite taking the men’s shot put bronze medal with 21.96m in a competition won by USA’s Ryan Crouser with a championship record 22.77m.
“I'm surprised in a negative way, I wanted to throw over my personal best [22.37m last month], so I'm really proud of myself when I went 21.90-plus in the first round, but then I tried to force it a little bit, the technique went slower and tight so I'm not so happy about that, but at the end of the day I get the medal, so that's the most important thing. And I learned how important it is to be relaxed at a world championship,” reflected Fabbri.
Six national records were broken by European athletes on the first of three days in Glasgow but a special shout out should be given to Joao Coelho who twice reduced the Portuguese 400m indoor record.
Coelho ran 46.35 in his morning heat and then impressed when he finished second in his evening semi behind Belgium's in-form Alexander Doom, the two men running 45.69 and 45.98 respectively.
The other men's 400m semi was won by Norway's Karsten Warholm, co-holder of the European 400m indoor record at 45.05 which he ran in the same venue when winning the 2019 European indoor title. The 400m hurdles world record holder and former European Athlete of the Year is rounding into form at the right time as he came home in a season's best of 45.86.
Full results and further information can be found on the World Athletics website here.
Phil Minshull for European Athletics