Reigning world and European indoor champion Andy Díaz Hernández was in excellent form on the first day of the Italian Championships in Florence on Saturday (25) evening.
Diaz approached the 18 metre-barrier with his first jump of the competition, landing at a world lead of 17.87m to add seven centimetres to his previous national record which he set at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships.
In fact, Diaz had two jumps in excess of his previous national record. He also eclipsed his now-beaten national record in the third round with 17.81m.
Diaz moves up to seventh on the European all-time list with his first-round mark of 17.87m, overtaking the likes of 2010 European champion Phillips Idowu (17.81m) and 2002 and 2006 European champion Christian Olsson (17.83m).
Behind Diaz, Simone Biasutti made a phenomenal improvement as he broke the 17 metre-barrier for the first time in his career, bounding out to 17.32m on his second attempt to add 38 centimetres to his previous lifetime best.
Last year’s world silver medallist Andrea Dallavalle completed the podium in third with 16.86m.
In the women's triple jump, reigning European U20 champion Erika Saraceni made a promising season's debut after missing the early months of the year due to hernia surgery. She produced a lifetime best of 14.41m for victory in her first competition since competing at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
Reigning European champion Leonardo Fabbri was also in excellent form as he blasted a winning put of 22.43m in the fifth round of the shot put, one of three throws in his series which were over the 22 metre-line. This was Fabbri’s seventh competition over 22 metres in 2026.
Two-time European champion Marcell Jacobs won the men’s 100m title in 10.12 and world indoor champion Zaynab Dosso won the women’s 100m in 11.24.
In her first race in over six weeks caused by a bout of flu just before the European 10,000m Cup, Nadia Battocletti closed with a final kilometre of 2:54 to win the 5000m title in 15:12.65.
Elsewhere around Europe…
Géraldine Di Tizio-Frey set a European leading time and lifetime best of 10.96 to win the women’s 100m at the Swiss Championships in Zurich.
Audrey Werro also impressed with a lifetime best of 50.80 in the heats of the 400m, her first ever sub-51 second clocking. She also qualified for the 800m final, winning her heat in 2:06.11.
Owen Ansah sped to a 10.00 clocking to win the men's 100m at the German Championships in Bochum while European 3000m steeplechase record-holder Frederik Ruppert won the men's 5000m title in 14:08.15.
In the field events, Simon Batz leapt out to 8.29m in the men's long jump and Shanice Craft won a competitive women’s discus with 66.18m ahead of 2022 European silver medallist Kristin Pudenz with 64.00m.
Reigning European 400m champion Natalia Bukowiecka won the women's 400m title at the Polish Championships in Bialystok in a season’s best of 50.02. World record-holder Anita Włodarczyk won her 13th national hammer title with 71.25m.
After clocking 50.47 in the heats of the 400m on Friday, Isabelle Black won the women's 400m title at the French Championships in 50.58 while European 3000m steeplechase champion Alexis Miellet won the men's 3000m steeplechase in 8:24.64.
Three-time world champion Daniel Ståhl set a season’s best of 69.85m in the men's discus at the Swedish Championships in Uppsala. Vanessa Kamga also impressed with a winning throw of 64.26m in the women’s discus.
On the last day of the Norwegian Championships in Trondheim, Henriette Jaeger won the women's 200m in a national record of 22.55. 2023 world bronze medallist Narve Gilje Nordas won the men's 1500m in 3:36.37.
World 400m hurdles bronze medallist Emma Zapletalová also smashed the national 200m record at the Slovakian Championships in Banska Bystrica with a 22.67 clocking, becoming the first Slovakian to break the 23 second-barrier for the distance.
There was also a national record in the women’s 400m hurdles at the Austrian Championships in Innsbruck. Anja Dlauhy won in 54.53 ahead of Lena Pressler in 54.55, both of whom surpassed the previous national record of 54.80.
Four-time world champion María Pérez won the women's 10,000m race walk at the Spanish Championships in Malaga in a world lead and Spanish record of 42:12.93.
Tatjana Pinto won the women’s 100m title at the Portuguese Championships in a national record of 11.02 while 2008 Olympic champion Nelson Evora, 42, continued his comeback with a winning jump of 16.03m in the men's triple jump, his best mark since 2020.
At the Dutch Championships in Hengelo, Nsikak Ekpo won the men’s 100m title in a 10.00 PB.
2022 European champion Wilma Heltela cleared 4.70m in the women's pole vault at the Finnish Championships in Jyväskylä.
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