20th July 2013 07:02
Britons were beating the odds too, winning four golds on the track in the space of an hour, including a clean sweep of the men's 200m and a one-two in the women's. Jake Wightman and Emelia Gorecka added middle distance titles in the men's 1500m and women's 3000m respectively, while Ali Kaya completed the first individual double of the championships when he added the 5000m crown to the 10,000m title he won on Thursday.
There was more gold for Türkiye thanks to Emel Dereli's national senior record in the women's shot, while Germany ended the night in style, claiming the men's high jump and javelin crowns.
Brilliant Belocian
Top honours, though, must go to Belocian who produced a faultless display of hurdling to clock 13.18, leaving Perini in his wake and lowering the continent's under-20 record set by Poland's Artur Noga at the 2006 World Juniors in Beijing.
Not that the Italian was running badly for he sliced his own national junior record down to 13.30 to take silver, while there was a national junior record for Brahian Peí±a too as he landed Switzerland's second sprint hurdling medal within 15 minutes of breathless action.
'I just ran better than the others,' said Belocian afterwards. 'Better than the Italian and the Swede. I also broke the European record which is awesome.'
As for Perini, he said: 'I gave my all in this race and this medal is a good result. Belocian is my friend and opponent and today he has demonstrated that he is a little bit faster than me.'
The first Swiss hurdling medal came thanks to Noemi Zbí¤ren who delighted her loud army of scarlet-clad fans, adding the European junior gold to her World Junior and World Youth silver medals.
Zí¤rben finally grabbed the hurdles title she craved when she scorched home in 13.17, just 0.08s outside the championships record. Sarah Lavin broke her own Irish junior record to take silver in 13.34, edging out French hurdler Heloise Kane whose 13.36 was also a personal best.
Britain's golden sweep
Britain's gold rush on the track began with Wightman who became the country's first European junior 1500m champion for 34 years when he outfought Süleyman Bekmezci to take the tape in 3:44.14, his nation's first winner since Graham Williamson won gold in 1979.
He was followed swiftly by Dina Asher-Smith who led Desiree Henry to an impressive one-two in the women's 200m. Asher-Smith stormed across the line ahead of her compatriot Desiree Henry in 23.29.
Asher-Smith's victory keeps the title in Britain's hands following Jodie Williams' win in 2011, while Henry ensured her country delivered the first double of the championships as she took silver in 23.56.
That achievement was soon surpassed by Britain's men who took the first three places in their half-lap final. They were led by Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake who clocked 20.62 outrunning his compatriots Leon Reid and Matthew Hudson-Smith.
Reid took silver in 20.92 while Hudson-Smith was just two hundredths behind dipping desperately ahead of Ireland's Marcus Lawler for bronze.
Gorecka rounded things off in style for GB in the women's 3000m when she finally bagged her first junior track title at her last ever junior championships having won two European junior cross country titles in the past and a 5000m silver in Tallinn, not to mention bronze at the World Juniors in Barcelona last year.
Gorecka's was an emphatic victory as she dominated the final to win by more than 13 seconds in 9:12.53 over Ermine Hatun-Tuna who ran her lifetime best to take silver for Türkiye in 9:25.83. Anna Petrova won bronze for Russia in 9:30.00.
Historic win for Hendriksdóttir
Gorecka may be leaving the junior ranks, but Aníta Hendriksdóttir of Iceland has only just arrived and the incredible 17-year-old did so in her usual ungainly style, adding the European junior 800m title to the World Youth crown she claimed last weekend in Donetsk. It was a historic win for Hendriksdóttir, Iceland's first ever at a Euroepan juniors.
She adopted her usual front-running tactics and held just enough back to stay ahead of the advancing Olena Sidorska in the home straight. She crossed the line in 2:01.14 leaving the Ukrainian with silver in 2:01.46.
Oona Kettunen also produced a well-judged piece of distance running when she overhauled the favourite Maria Larsson to deliver the women's 3000m steeplchase gold for Finland in a national junior record of 9:45.51.
Larsson had set off at a pelt, opening a lead that grew to 20 metres by half way, but it was too much too soon, and the Swede's challenge collapsed over the last two laps.
Marusa Mismas came past her to take silver in a Slovenian senior record of 9:51.15, while Maya Rehberg left Larsson out of the medals, claiming bronze for Germany in 10:00.04, a PB for her too.
Kaya completes the double
Kaya's second gold in two days came in now familiar fashion as he repeated his front-running tactics from the 10,000m. He led from start to finish and crossed the line some 300m ahead of nearest challenger in 13:49.76, some five seconds outside the championships record.
While his triumph was little more than a procession, the battle for second and third was a thriller, won to rapturous applause by Italy's Samuele Dini who claimed the silver medal to go with the one won by his twin brother Lorenzo behind Kaya in the 10,000m.
While Lorenzo's silver was aided by a Russian's tragic mistake, Samuele had to fight all the way to the line to beat Britain's Jonathan Davies in 14:36.25.
Field finals
Kaya's gold was Türkiye's second of the session after Dereli's Turkish record in the shot. Leading from the second round, she ended her campaign with 18.04, 37cm beyond her previous best and the furthest ever thrown by a Turkish woman.
Sophie McKinna took silver while Katlin Piirimae bagged bronze and an Estonian junior record.
Germany's two triumphs came in the high jump and javelin thanks to Tobias Poyte and Julian Weber. Poyte was not fancied for the high jump title but he improved his PB twice in the final and was the only man over 2.20.
Weber beat his big rival Maksym Bohdan. Having just seen Poyte pocket the high jump crown, he whipped his fifth round effort out to 79.68, the furthest by a European junior this year and, crucially, beyond Bohdan's national junior record of 78.77 which had led the competition from round one.
Hanna Zinchuk left it late too before she triumphed in the women's hammer final. The Belarussian was lying fifth when she overtook two in-form Hungarians with her fifth round effort of 65.44.
That took the lead from Réka Gyurátz who had led from round two with a huge PB of 65.01. Gyurátz had to settle for silver while her compatriot Beatrix Banga took bronze with 63.56, a PB for her.
Zinchuk's victory was a first for Belarus in Rieti and Eirik Greibrokk Dolve delivered Norway's first when he won the men's pole vault. Dolve cleared 5.30, 1cm below his best but five higher than anyone else.
Axel Chapelle produced the best performance of his life to take silver with Leonid Kobelev of Russia third.
Decathlon
There was plenty of non-medal action too, not least in the decathlon where Yevgeniy Likhanov stretched his lead to 275 points with two more personal bests in the high jump and 400m. The Russian cleared to 2.13, adding 7cm to his PB and 925 points to his morning total, then ran 50.20, a tenth inside his best 400m time, worth 805.
Likhanov has an overnight total of 4361 and a huge lead over Sweden's Frederick Ekholm has moved up to second ahead of Germany's Tim Nowak with 4086 after jumping 1.98 and running 400 in 49.40, 70 seconds quicker than he has before.
Nowak is third just 11 points behind with 27 to spare over Aleksey Cherkasov in fourth. Philipp Menn is fifth, another 14 behind the Russian, with Vadym Adamchuk of Ukraine sixth, just two adrift of Menn.
The Qualifiers
Aleksandr Skorobogatko looks most likley of the two leading Russians to win the men's 400m hurdles after he beat his teammate Timofey Chalyy in the first semi-final this afternoon. The two cleared the penultimate barrier together, but Skorobogatko was stronger on the run-in, clocking 50.12.
Jacob Paul won the second semi and looks most likely to take bronze. He ran just over a second slower in 51.13.
Paul's teammate Hayley McLean was quickest in the women's semi-finals, the stocky Briton clocking 57.76 ahead of Christine Salterberg of Germany. Vilde Svortevik still looks her biggest threat. The Norwegian won the slower second race in 58.54, ahead of the relaxed looking Frenchwoman Joan Medjid.
Patrick Zwicker remains the man to beat in the men's 800m. The German showed his class when he opened up down he back straight of his semi-final and cruised away from the field round the top bend before shutting down and cantering over the line in 1:49.96. Gaeten Manceaux of France won the second race in 1:50.40 ahead of Spain's meal hope Daniel Andújar.
Tomas Veszelka was the best of the men's triple jumpers. He goes into Sunday's final in form after breaking Slovakia's junior record with 15.91. But France's big favourite Jean-Noël Cretinoir went out after failing to land a legal jump.