Ceh breaks championship record to win in Tallinn

Tokyo-bound Kristjan Ceh and Yaroslava Mahuchikh were among the winners at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Tallinn (8-11), with both athletes breaking championship records in their respective events.

Ceh had improved the European U23 discus record to 70.35m in Kuortane in June, breaking the 70-metre mark for the first time to better his Slovenian record, and in Tallinn he improved the championship record twice – first in qualifying and again in the final to retain his title.

Opening with a foul, the 22-year-old then threw 65.59m to qualify for the final, improving Robert Harting’s long-standing championship record of 64.50m. He returned two days later to add almost two metres to his record, launching the discus 67.48m in the third round and backing that up with 66.86m from his final throw. Ceh also threw 65.20m in the opening round and won by more than six metres, with Yauheni Bahutski of Belarus claiming silver thanks to a 61.21m throw.

“I'm happy with the championship record,” said Ceh, “happy with the results, happy with the competition and to become the under-23 European champion, so it's been a great competition.” 

Mahuchikh’s perfect series

There was also a dominant performance by Ukraine’s Mahuchikh in the high jump as the world silver medallist cleared each of her heights on the first attempt before calling it a day after her 2.00m clearance.

The 19-year-old entered the competition at 1.85m and would have won the competition on countback with her first-time clearance at 1.89m. But she went on to soar clear first-time at 1.95m and then 2.00m. Sweden’s Maja Nilsson and Slovenia’s Lia Apostolovski both cleared 1.89m to finish second and third respectively.

“Tallinn is my beloved city, so I really wanted to compete here,” said Mahuchikh. “I was here for a training camp in winter. In May, we decided to not to come here for the championships because of my Olympic preparation. But later on, when we realised I had only two competitions before that, I really wanted to come.

“It was a good and nice evening at the stadium – clearing all heights with my first attempt. I did not continue jumping because the main target is the Olympic Games, but I knew this 2.00m jump was very good for me also mentally.”

Further records fall 

Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalova joined in with the championship record breaking, clocking 54.28 to win the 400m hurdles and improve her previous national record by almost a second. Spain’s Sara Gallego also set a national record to secure silver, running 55.20, while Yasmin Giger claimed bronze in a Swiss U23 record of 55.25.

These 400m hurdles finals! 🔥🔥🔥

Emma Zapletalova 🇸🇰 wins gold in a championship record of 54.28, taking almost one second off her previous Slovakian record! ⏱#Tallinn2021 pic.twitter.com/09zrbiiLP9

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 10, 2021

The men’s final was also exciting, with Italy’s Alessandro Sibilio missing Karsten Warholm's championship record by just 0.05 with his national U23 record time of 48.42. Pulling away over the final couple of hurdles, Sibilio had time to celebrate on his approach to the line as he won ahead of Germany’s Emil Agyekum (48.96) and Ramsey Angela of the Netherlands (49.07).

European U20 bronze medallist Ricky Petrucciani also had the race of his life in the 400m, clocking 45.02 to miss the Swiss senior record by just 0.03 and improve the 45.04 championship record which had been set in 2003. That gained him victory ahead of Belgium’s world U20 champion Jonathan Sacoor (45.17) and Italy’s European U20 champion Edoardo Scotti (45.68).

The European U23 record was broken in the men’s 4x100m as Germany’s Yannick Wolf, Luis Brandner, Milo Skupin-Alfa and Joshua Hartmann combined to clock 38.70 to take 0.07 off the mark set by Great Britain at the 2013 edition of the championships in Tampere. That performance completed a 4x100m double for Germany, with their teammates Lilly Kaden, Keshia Kwadwo, Sophia Junk and Talea Prepens running 43.05 to improve the women's championship record the team had set in the heats. Spain secured silver in both events.

Barbora Malikova anchored Czech Republic to victory in the women’s 4x400m, her strong final leg seeing the team clock 3:30.11 ahead of France (3:30.33), while France were the winners in 3:05.01 in a men’s final which saw the Netherlands team disqualified following ‘jostling’ on the last leg.

Nadia Battocletti was among Italy’s four winners on the final day of the championships, and six winners overall, as she claimed the 5000m title in 15:37.4.

Multi events wins for Sulek and Bechmann

Another athlete getting ready for the Olympics is world U20 bronze medallist Adrianna Sulek and she won the heptathlon title with a score of 6305 points, while her Polish teammate Pia Skrzyszowska won a close 100m hurdles final, clocking 12.77 (-0.9m/s) to Cyrena Samba-Mayela of France’s 12.80. Two years after pulling up injured during the European U20 100m final, Britain’s Jeremiah Azu made a winning return as he captured the U23 gold in 10.25 (-0.3m/s) ahead of Sweden’s Henrik Larsson (10.36).

Germany’s Andreas Bechmann won the decathlon with 8142 points, during a competition in which Baptiste Thiery of France achieved a 5.60m clearance in the pole vault. In the individual pole vault final, French champion Ethan Cormont cleared an outdoor PB of 5.80m to match his best ever performance indoors and gain gold ahead of Emmanouil Karalis of Greece (5.65m). Norway’s Sondre Guttormsen and Turkey’s Ersu Sasma tied for bronze as they had matching performances up to their best of 5.60m.

Fresh from a PB of 80.78m just four days earlier, Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan added the European U23 hammer title to his gold medals in the U20 and U18 age groups, throwing 77.88m, while world leader Jorinde Van Klinken of the Netherlands won the discus with a best of 63.02m.

Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, who won the European U20 decathlon title in 2019, this time claimed gold in the long jump thanks to a leap of 8.10m (0.3m/s). A close women’s long jump final was won by Hungary’s Petra Farkas, her fourth-round 6.73m (1.1m/s) putting her ahead of Germany’s Merle Homeier (6.69m) and Britain’s Lucy Hadaway (6.63m).

Jess Whittington for World Athletics