Croatia’s Vita Barbic took gold in the women’s javelin at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere on Saturday (9), adding the to the European U18 title she won last year. But it was not without a fight.
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
Barbic finds her spark in fifth round
The Croat was languishing in seventh place after four rounds with two failures and two throws below 50 metres, with Rabiye Çiçek of Türkiye leading with her second effort of 53.68m.
But in the fifth round, the competition ignited as Barbic rediscovered her spark. The top ranked athlete unleashed a throw of 54.77m to seize the lead. And she was quickly followed by Finland’s Rebecca Nelimarkka, fifth at last year’s World U20 Championships, who also improved to 54.43m.
In the final round, Lithuania’s Orinta Navikaite produced her best throw of the competition with 54.36m, nudging Çiçek out of the medals into fourth place.
For Navikaite, it repeated her bronze medal result from last year’s European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica. With the home crowd urging her on, Nelimarkka put everything into her final throw, but when it landed at 54.04m, Barbic was confirmed as champion.
The Croat added a final flourish, producing her best throw of the day with 55.26m in the final round.
Champion reveals injury woes
"This whole season was not going as smoothly as last year," said Barbic afterwards. "There were many ups but so much more downs. I got injured three weeks before this competition, so I did not even know if I would be able to throw by the time I arrive here.
"I am very thankful to my physio, my coach and everybody who cheered for me because thanks to them I managed to do it. It was not easy. This time, the qualification went well, but the first four attempts in the final did not go the way I planned. But I am not that easy to get rid off.
"I tried to pull myself out of every bad situation and I am here and this is just the dream come true. I love throws because one attempt is enough. One and done. You can win the competition with only one big attempt. I just gathered up only positive emotions and all the atmosphere from the stadium and just tried to do what I could.
"I threw that one attempt just for myself. I threw it like it was going to be a national or championships record, 70m. I was like: 'I am going to do my best this time.' It was all I could do at the moment.
"It is little of us, but there are us - that is the Croatian saying. We are here, we are powerful, we have good athletes, so everyone of us counts and we want to be the best for our team. When you put on this great jersey, you know what you are representing. I am grateful to be here and show something great for Croatia."