World U20 champion Jana Koscak leads the heptathlon standings at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere after two events by over 200 points courtesy of a championship high jump best of 1.92m, although her bid to add the European U20 title to her collection almost came to grief in the 100m hurdles.
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
After an enterprising start, Koscak lost her balance after clattering at least two of the hurdles. She did well to not just stay on her feet but still finish second in 13.69 behind Germany’s Emma Kaul, the younger sister of 2022 European decathlon champion Niklas, who sped to a lifetime best of 13.52 on her major international debut which yielded 1047 points.
A fraction behind Koscak was her main rival Sarolta Kriszt from Hungary who clocked 13.70 with Finland’s Enni Virjonen making a positive start in fourth overall with 13.73.
But Koscak put any residual disappointment from the hurdles firmly behind her with an exemplary display in the high jump which saw the Croatian scale a championship best of 1.92m, breaking the previous mark of 1.90m which was set by East Germany’s Sibylle Thiele in 1983 en route to her enduring championship record of 6465 points.
Koscak, who had three promising but ultimately unsuccessful attempts at 1.95m which would have equalled the outright championship record, takes her score up to 2155 points heading into this evening’s shot put with a lead of over 200 points ahead of Estonia’s Marleen Ritari (1951 points) with Kriszt third overall (1924 points) after a solid 1.74m high jump.
Local hope Virjonen is fifth after the high jump with 1884 points with Kaul dropping to sixth after two events with 1877 points.
Frlickova flies to 13.10 100m hurdles heat
European U18 champion Laura Frlickova from Slovakia looks to be timing her peak to perfection for the second age-group championships in a row.
One year after winning the European U18 100m hurdles title in home soil in Banska Bystrica in a European U18 best of 12.86 over the lower barriers, Frlickova sped to a 13.10 clocking over the senior height barriers - the fastest time across the six heats.
Frlickova sliced 0.21 off her recently set lifetime best and Slovakian U20 record of 13.31 and her 13.10 clocking was only 0.11 shy of the championship record set by France’s Adrianna Lamalle all the way back in 2001.
Other heat winners included the French duo of Melissa Benfatah and Laura Montauban who clocked 13.17 and 13.29 respectively.
Hristiyan Kasabov impressed in the 110m hurdles heats, setting a Bulgarian U20 record of 13.49 into a 1.1 m/s headwind for the 99.0cm barriers to qualify fastest for the semifinals.
Other heat winners included the British duo of Noah Hanson and Toby Wright who clocked 13.54 and 13.64 respectively, the third and fifth fastest times across the heats.
Portugal's Pedro Afonso and Italy's Diego Nappi are on course to clash in the men's 200m final after they won their respective semifinals in 20.74 and 20.76 with both athletes easing down in the process.
There was a brace of lifetime bests in the women's 200m semifinals. Six of the eight finalists either equalled or ameliorated their best times to qualify for tonight's final, including Germany's Judith Bilepo Mokobe who equalled her lifetime best of 23.11 to qualify fastest.
Great Britain's Lucy Tallon and Ireland's 100m finalist Precious Akpe-Moses also won their semifinals finals in lifetime bests of 23.37 and 23.60 respectively.
