Eljahro Philipsen soared to a European U18 best and championship record of 12.96 in the heats of the 110m hurdles on Saturday (18) morning at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Rieti, shattering Wilhem Belocian's previous mark of 13.12 from 2012.
In what looked to be an easy run for the Dutchman as he gently strode over the line, has broken records with potentially more to come when Philipsen takes to the track again for the semi-final and hopefully final.
He burst out of the block before gliding over each hurdle, clipping a couple along the way, with his family in the stands cheering his across the finish line in an unbelievable time, as the first European U18 man to go under 13 seconds.
"When I finished, I thought it was a bit messy race, I hit like three hurdles," Philipsen said.
"I dreamed about this yesterday and I knew that I can do it. The whole season I have been focusing on the U20 height for Oregon [the world U20 championships] and now, I am here and need to show what I have got.
“For me, this is most of the time like five hurdles to mess up and five hurdles to make everything right again. It is going to be great. The higher hurdles helped my technique a lot.
“I did not get it right yet, but it is going to come. It has been a long journey - we have been here since Tuesday, I was getting a bit bored, but now I am excited to run again.
“This event is my main target, but I just love hurdles and want to perform well also in Oregon. My youngest fan, my niece, is also here - she is just one-years-old."
(Eljahro Philipsen's father, sister, and two nieces)
Coming into these championships, Philipsen had improved to 13.18 in his last competition prior to the European Athletics U18 Championships and the Dutchman has embellished his title prospects with this statement performance.
Türkiye’s Yunus Emre Civelek was the next fastest qualifier, running a national U18 best of 13.13 which was only 0.01 shy of the since-beaten European U18 best, followed by France’s Orfeo Chandler who ran a PB of 13.36.
Succo, Odunaike, and di Palma ease through to finals
In the 100m hurdles, Italian star Alessia Succo eased over the hurdles in 12.91 to qualify for the semifinals fastest after what she made look like an easy run. Her time was just 0.05 shy of her lifetime best as well as the championship record set by Slovakia's Laura Frlickova in 2024.
Fellow Slovakian Nina Hejciková qualified second fastest with a PB of 12.96, shattering her previous best ever time of 13.21, while Germany’s Delisha Benelisa Domingos took the third fastest qualifying spot in another seemingly effortless performance, clocking 13.13.
Fresh off winning her heptathlon gold medal just yesterday, Finland's Alisa Launonen won heat two in 13.39 to put herself through to the semifinals.
Tito Odunaike, the world and European U18 leader in the triple jump, was the sole athlete to secure automatic qualification for the final with just one jump, as the Briton flew out to 15.40m in the first round.
Joao Matos of Portugal needed just two jumps, also breaking his PB and setting a national U18 record of 15.34m in the second round.
Just three more athletes achieved the automatic qualifying standard to reach the final, with Michail Delintzoglou of Greece taking the final spot with 14.77m.
In the men’s javelin three athletes, Italy’s Antonio di Palma, Finland’s Jere Murto, and Bulgaria’s Mihail Rusinov, needed just the one throw to automatically qualify for the final.
Across the whole field seven athletes broke their PB, with di Palma adding nearly two metres to his best in front of the home crowd with 73.28m to show he is one to contest for the title.
Murto however remains the favourite as he is the only athlete to have surpassed 80 metres this year, and automatically qualified for the final with a throw of 69.86m.
Poland’s Adrian Dral launched his shot put to 20.03m to qualify as top seed for the final with just one throw, and as the only athlete beyond 20 metres.
There were another three athletes who surpassed the automatic qualifying mark of 18.80m, with Germany’s Clesio de Carvalho (19.64m), Italy’s Antony del Pioluogo (19.58m), and Hungary’s Roland Nagy (18.93m) completing the top four.
*Geoblocking restrictions apply in territories where Rieti 2026 is being covered by a national broadcaster