Alexia Ioana Dospin produced a sensational series of jumps to win the women’s triple jump title at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen on Friday (18), Romania's first at this event since 2017.
Bergen 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
Dospin delivers on big stage
Dospin led from the outset with an opening jump of 13.53m but the competition quickly intensified in round two. Türkiye’s Sedef Çevik set a personal best of 13.44m to move into third, before Serbia’s Aleksandrija Mitrović, the 2023 European U20 bronze medallist, soared out to 13.84m to take the lead after a first-round foul.
Dospin, however, had more to give. She responded immediately with a PB of 13.89m, reclaiming top spot in a fiercely contested second round.
The drama continued into round three. France’s Clémence Rougier, the 2022 European U18 champion, finally landed a valid jump after two fouls—13.61m to slot into third. Ukraine’s Alyona Chass followed with 13.48m to climb to fourth.
Moments later, Dospin stunned the crowd with an enormous 14.05m, breaking the 14-metre barrier for the first time in her career to tighten her grip on gold.
Chass wasn’t finished, leaping a PB of 13.75m in round four to push Rougier out of the medals. But the French athlete delivered under pressure, bouncing back in the fifth round with a wind-assisted 13.93m (+2.3 m/s) to claim silver—ten centimetres further than her legal PB of 13.83m.
With no further changes in the final round, the podium was confirmed: gold for Romania’s Dospin (14.05m), silver for France’s Rougier (13.92m), and bronze for Serbia’s Mitrović (13.84m). Dospin followed the spike marks of Andreea Panturoiu, who won this title in 2017, which was the last European U23 gold won by Romania until Dospin's Bergen 2025 breakthrough.
"I was expecting a good performance today. But when I saw that jump over 14 metres, I was over the moon. Right now, I cannot express myself even in my own language, the emotions are so strong," said the winner.