With 10 days to go until the Banska Bystrica 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships, we have a clearer idea as to who some of the prospective stars might be following a busy weekend of national U18 championships action across Europe.
The European Athletics U18 Championships will be held between 18-21 July and all four days will be streamed live with English-language commentary through the European Athletics website.
Double gold for Inzoli and an Italian U18 record for Nappi in Molfetta
At the Italian U18 Championships in Molfetta, the precocious Daniele Inzoli came away with two gold medals on the road to Banska Bystrica.
The 15-year-old, who has already leapt a world age-15 best of 7.90m in the long jump, won with a first-round effort of 7.54m and will be looking to keep the long jump title in Italian hands in Banska Bystrica after Mattia Furlani’s breakthrough victory at the 2022 European Athletics U18 Championships.
Inzoli also showed his all-round ability with victory in the 100m in Molfetta on Friday in a lifetime best of 10.49, comfortably inside the qualifying standard for the European Athletics U18 Championships.
But the performance of the weekend arguably came in the men’s 200m from 16-year-old Diego Nappi who won the title in a massive lifetime best of 20.79 - his previous lifetime best stood at 21.17 - to break Filippo Tortu’s previous Italian U18 record of 20.91.
Another athlete with genuine gold medal prospects in Banska Bystrica is Elisa Valensin who won the 200m title against a significant headwind of 1.5 m/s. The multi-talented 17-year-old has already clocked 23.15 for 200m and also showed her promise in the 400m with a 52.50 clocking on her debut last month.
Fast 400m for Kus and a world U18 lead for Krukowski in Lublin
At the Polish U18 Championships in Lublin, the highly promising Anastazja Kus - who could be selected as part of Poland’s 4x400m team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - won the women’s 400m title in 52.68.
Roch Krukowski, the younger brother of long-time Polish international javelin thrower Marcin, won the javelin title (700g) with a world U18 leading mark of 80.60m, Zuzanna Rojek won the 100m hurdles (76.2cm) title in 13.25 and Oliwia Kasprzak won the 100m in 11.64.
At the German U18 Championships in Mönchengladbach, Daryl Ndasi clocked a national U18 record of 13.24 in the 100m hurdles (76.2cm) semifinals before winning the title in 13.33.
Nova Kienast also excelled with victory in the 3kg hammer with a German U18 record of 72.17m ahead of Clara Hegemann with 71.66m. The pair are first and second respectively on the 2024 European U18 list ahead of Banska Bystrica.
At the Spanish U18 Championships, the strength of Spanish sprint hurdling across all age-groups was on show as Anthony Yunier Perez won the 110m hurdles title (91.4cm) in a Spanish U18 record of 13.38 albeit by a narrow margin from Mario Stefanov in 13.42.
Perez - who also won the long jump title with 7.31m - and Stefanov are first and second respectively on the 2024 European U18 list with Banska Bystrica fast approaching.
Another star performer in Malaga was Andrea Njimi Tankeu who won the shot put and discus titles with 16.26m and 51.85m respectively.
At the Balkan U18 Championships in Maribor, Bulgaria’s Radina Velichkova won the 100m title in a European U18 leading time of 11.48 and Croatia’s Vita Barbic moved to the top of the European U18 list with 57.81m in the 500g javelin.
Steven Mills for European Athletics