With seven gold medals and 16 medals in total, Cyprus topped the medal table at the European Challenger Championships in Monaco on Saturday (30).
Their standout performers included the Fotopoulou twins, both of whom took individual titles before combining for victory in the concluding Swedish relay (100m-200m-300m-400m).
Filippa won the long jump title with 6.48m before Olivia followed suit with victory in the 200m in 23.48. They ran the first and second legs of Cyprus’ gold medal-winning team in the Swedish relay, clocking 2:07.28 to win by almost three seconds from Malta in 2:10.24.
Cypriot athletes are set to be the busiest athletes of the summer as far as championships are concerned. As well as the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August, Cyprus can also compete at both the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow (23 July-2 August) and the Mediterranean Games in Taranto (23 August-4 September).
Back-to-back victories for Mkrtchyan
Individually, one of the most impressive performers of the day was Armenia’s Yervand Mkrtchyan who won two gold medals within the space of an hour.
After upsetting pre-race favourite Pol Moya from Andorra in the 1500m, 3:42.75 to 3:45.50, he won the 5000m just 40 minutes later in 14:32.51.
As expected, 2022 European high jump silver medallist Marija Vukovic from Montenegro won the high jump. One week after clearing a season’s best of 1.94m in Rehlingen, Vukovic cleared 1.84m for victory ahead of Cyprus’ Styliana Ioannidou with 1.81m.
Other highlights across the day included Franko Burraj winning the men’s 400m in 46.45 for Albania’s only victory of the day and North Macedonia’s Andreas Trajkovski winning the long jump with a second round effort of 7.62m.
There was also a double for San Marino in the 100m with Alessandra Gasparelli (11.81) and 2025 Games of the Small States of Europe champion Francesco Sansovini (10.62) taking the plaudits.
In total, 11 competing nations won at least one gold medal during the session and 15 nations came away with a medal of some description. Six national records were also set across the day.
Among the spectators at the Stade Louis II this afternoon were European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov.
Photos courtesy of Dan Vernon