Erika Saraceni smashed a 24-year-old championship record to win the women’s triple jump in superb style. produced a lifetime best series to win the women’s triple jump in superb style.
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
The Italian revelled in her status as the pre-event favourite producing a lifetime best series. She opened with 14.08m, equalling the national U20 record she set at the Madrid 2025 European Athletics Team Championships in June.
It was a mark that was more than 40cm clear of any of her rivals’ lifetime bests heading into the final and virtually sealed gold from the outset for the world U20 bronze medallist.
She then stretched out to a superb 14.15m in the third round, which was a puff of wind away from being a new personal best and a championship record with a following wind of +2.1m/s.
Striving ever further, she landed a brilliant leap of 14.24m (0.0) in the final round, 12cm beyond the previous championship best set by Anastasiya Ilyina of Russia at Grosseto 2001.
It was a high quality competition through the field, with the top five all recording personal bests. Romania’s Daria Vrînceanu took silver, adding 10cm to her previous best with 13.75m (-1.2m/s) in the fourth round and Latvia’s Adriana Kruzmane won bronze with her opening effort of 13.62m (+1.3m/s).
"Not too confident"
“I was not too confident about winning the gold before the final, because every race is different,” said Saraceni afterward. “I was scared that I would get three foul attempts and that I will not qualify for the top eight.
“So, my plan was to get it with the first jump. I wanted to jump over 14m with the first attempt to confirm my shape and then I could be more relaxed. I was even thinking about the championships record because I felt I was ready for it. My last attempts are always different than the others.
“I am more focused and more determined. I wanted a new PB, but the CR is even better bonus.”
Meindlschmid wins long jump gold
The men’s long jump was won by Czechia’s Petr Meindlschmid with a second round season’s best jump of 7.89m (+1.0m/s). Italy’s Daniele Inzoli and Serbia’s Luka Boškovic were next best with 7.69m. Inzoli took silver by virtue of a superior second best jump of 7.62m, to add European U20 silver to the European U18 bronze medallist.
It was a first international title for Meindlschmid, who demonstrated his potential when placing seventh at senior level at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.