Slovakia's Laura Frlickova celebrates her European U18 100m hurdles win in Banska Bystrica (© Getty Images)
European U18 best performances by hurdlers Laura Frlickova and Michal Rada were among the standout results at the European U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica from 18-21 July.
Slovakia’s Frlickova delighted the home crowd on day one as she stormed to a European U18 best in the 100m hurdles heats. Clocking 12.86 (2.0m/s), the 17-year-old took 0.12 off the previous European U18 best set by Cyrena Samba-Mayela in 2017. The performance also moved Frlickova to second on the world U18 all-time list, behind only Kerrica Hill, Jamaica’s world U20 champion who clocked 12.71 in 2022.
Frlickova returned to win her semifinal in 13.18 (0.4m/s) the following day, before securing Slovakia’s first ever European U18 Championships gold medal in 12.97 (0.2m/s). She won ahead of Poland’s Zofia Rojek (13.33) and France’s Auxane Kingue (13.37).
“These championships could not have gone better,” Frlickova told European Athletics. “To win on home soil - that is a dream of many athletes. I am so glad I managed to achieve my target and fulfilled my dream.”
There were European U18 best performances at both ends of the championships, as Rada achieved his in the 400m hurdles on the final day of competition.
Crossing the finish line in 49.42, Czechia’s Rada improved the previous European U18 best by 0.96 and moved to fifth on the world U18 all-time list. He was followed by his compatriot Marek Vana (51.12) and Italy’s Tommaso Ardizzone (51.38).
Michal Rada on his way to 400m hurdles gold in Banska Bystrica (© Getty Images)
Rada’s performance completed a unique double as the previous race – the women’s 400m hurdles – was won by his twin sister Nina Radova. Setting a championship best of 58.00, Radova got gold ahead of Croatia’s Eva Barbaric (58.85) and France’s Lalie Pouzancre-Hoyer (59.07).
“Before my race, I was thinking about my sister,” said Rada. “When I figured out that she won I was not stressed anymore, and I focused on myself.
“Me and my sister go to the same school, we train together, we do everything together. You cannot imagine how we appreciate what we achieved.”
Czechia secured a third gold on the final day through Adela Holubova, who won a dramatic 800m final in a championship best of 2:04.23 to finish ahead of Britain’s Shaikira King (2:04.29).
Nappi and Valensin help Italy to top of medal table
A 200m double by Diego Nappi and Elisa Valensin plus a European U18 best by the women’s medley relay team helped Italy to top of the medal table at the end of the four-day championships.
First Valensin won her final in 23.09 (1.0m/s) and then Nappi won his in 20.81 (0.7m/s), both championship bests.
Elisa Valensin celebrates her 200m win at the European U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica (© Getty Images)
Those performances were achieved on day three, during a session that also featured a Polish 400m double by Stanislaw Strzelecki (46.50) and Anastazja Kus (51.89), with both athletes also setting championship bests.
Strzelecki returned the following day to anchor Poland to medley relay victory in a championship best of 1:51.62. That was the last race of the championships and it followed the European U18 best achieved by Italy in the women’s medley relay as the quartet – anchored by Valensin – combined to clock 2:05.23. Kus was also back in action and she anchored Poland to silver in 2:05.54.
Barbic achieves throws medal double
Croatia’s Vita Barbic set another of the 24 championship bests in Banska Bystrica as she threw a world U18 lead of 61.07m to win the javelin. That was the 16-year-old’s second medal of the day as she earlier threw 49.50m to secure bronze in the discus behind Germany’s Nadjela Wepiwe (51.61m) and Spain’s Andrea Njimi Tankeu Djeudji (50.01m).
Estonia’s Tristan Konso won the decathlon with a world U18 lead of 7549 points, his series including a championship decathlon best of 13.52 in the 110m hurdles.
Finland’s Enni Virjonen also set a world U18 lead of 6151 points to win the heptathlon. Her performances included a heptathlon championship best throw of 51.59m in the javelin, a PB by almost 10 metres.
Other athletes to set championship bests during the four days of competition were Great Britain’s Lyla Belshaw, who won the 1500m in 4:13.01; Serbia’s Aldin Catovic, who claimed 3000m gold in 8:07.03 after getting 1500m silver behind Filip Toul; and Italy’s Serena Di Fabio, who clocked 21:50.80 to win the 5000m race walk.