Day 2 Highlights | European Athletics U18 Championships | Banska Bystrica 2024

19 July 2024 - Day 2 saw the first finals of this U18 championships! Germany’s Clara Hegemann and Poland’s Jakub Rodziak landed world U18 leads in the women’s hammer and men’s discus finals respectively, setting the tone for an evening high in quality. Maria Rafailidou underscored her status as world U18 lead by winning the women’s shot put - all six of her throws were good enough for gold.

On what turned out to be a series of thrilling sprint finals, expectations were sky high for Laura Frličková to win Slovakia’s first ever gold medal at the European Athletics U18 Championships. She duly delivered with another electrifying performance in the women’s 100m hurdles. Kyan Daniel Duffy Escalona emulated his compatriot Lorenzo Simonelli with another Italian gold in the 110m hurdles this summer. In the men’s 100m final, Britain’s Joel Masters was quickest away, but Germany’s Jakob Kemminer powered past to win gold. In the women’s event, Bulgaria’s Radina Velichkova was victorious.

A monster throw in the javelin from Enni Virjonen upended the women’s heptathlon and ultimately helped her secure the gold medal, ahead of the overnight leader, Britain's Thea Brown, and Germany’s Maria Schnemilich.

There was a surprise in the men’s long jump. European U18 leader Daniele Inzoli was out of sorts, which paved the way for France’s Remi Mourie and Hungary’s Áron Hajdu. Triple jumper Brenda Apsīte became only the second ever European U18 gold medallist from Latvia.

Pre-race favourite Serena Di Fabio showed her class as she won the women’s 5000m race walk, smashing the championship record in the process.

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