Jessica Schilder at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (© Getty Images)
Home favourite Jessica Schilder dominated the shot put and achieved the farthest indoor throw in the world since 2013 on a busy final day of action at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn on Sunday (9).
Her world-leading national record of 20.69m came in a session that saw Dutch teams win both 4x400m finals, Jakob Ingebrigtsen complete another European indoor distance double and Zaynab Dosso storm to 60m success.
All six of Schilder’s throws would have been enough to win the shot put. The 2022 world indoor and outdoor bronze medallist surpassed 20 metres with three of her attempts, throwing 20.24m in the third round, 20.69m in the fifth and 20.37m in the sixth. She backed those marks up with two throws of 19.97m and a 19.64m.
Her 20.69m improves her own previous outright Dutch record by 36cm and adds a centimetre to the world lead that had been set by Canada’s Sarah Mitton in Karlsruhe last month. Germany’s Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye was second with 19.56m and Portugal’s 2022 world indoor champion was third with 19.26m. Andrei Rares Toader won the men’s title with a Romanian indoor record of 21.27m.
Ukraine’s Olympic and world champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh maintained her win streak to claim a third successive European indoor high jump title. The world record-holder cleared 1.99m on her second attempt and decided to call it a day with victory secured at that height. Silver went to Serbia’s Angelina Topic who managed 1.95m.
Olympic bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis of Greece and Dutch record-holder Menno Vloon decided to share gold in the men’s pole vault after they couldn’t be separated up to the winning height of 5.90m.
Finland’s world indoor silver medallist Saga Vanninen improved her national record to 4922 points – a world lead – to win the pentathlon. The score moves her to 11th on the world all-time list and she clinched the European indoor crown ahead of Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands with 4826 and Ireland’s Kate O'Connor with 4781.
Vanninen, the two-time world U20 heptathlon champion, achieved PBs in the 60m hurdles (8.19), high jump (1.81m) and long jump (6.52m) on her way to that winning score.
Gold again for Ingebrigtsen
Norway’s Ingebrigtsen completed his third European indoor distance double, adding 3000m gold to the 1500m title he won on Friday.
Clocking 7:48.37, he held off Great Britain’s George Mills (7:49.41) to clinch the seventh European indoor gold medal of his career so far.
Ireland’s Sarah Healy dipped to deny Great Britain’s Melissa Coutrney-Bryant in the women’s 3000m, 8:52.86 to 8:52.92, while Samuel Chapple ran a Dutch indoor record of 1:44.88 to win the men’s 800m and Poland's Anna Wielgosz won a tactical women's 800m in 2:02.09.
Dosso wins 60m showdown, Bol anchors 4x400m to championship record
It took a world lead for Italy’s Dosso to win a competitive women’s 60m final, the world indoor bronze medallist improving her national record to 7.01 to clinch the crown by just 0.01 ahead of Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji. Patrizia van der Weken claimed Luxembourg’s first ever European indoor medal, bagging bronze in an equal national record of 7.06 to match the time she clocked in the semifinals. Dosso had run 7.03 in that round, and Kambundji 7.04.
There was a Dutch double in the 4x400m finals. First the men’s quartet clocked 3:04.95 to win ahead of Spain and Belgium, and then the women’s team – anchored by world indoor 400m record-holder Femke Bol – ran a championship record-breaking world lead of 3:24.34 to win the final event of the competition ahead of Great Britain and Czechia.
Great Britain’s 3:24.89 and Czechia’s 3:25.31 were also national indoor records and the three countries now respectively sit third, fourth and fifth on the world indoor all-time list.
