European athletes had a highly successful campaign at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing from 21-23 March, winning 11 gold medals in total across the 26 events.
Norway finished second on the medal table with three gold medals - their best ever campaign at the World Athletics Indoor Championships - while 20 European nations in total made the podium in Nanjing.
Record-breaking championships for Norway
Norway had only won one gold medal at the World Athletics Indoor Championships prior to Nanjing but thanks to the collective efforts of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Sander Skotheim, their country’s tally now stands at four titles.
Ingebrigtsen replicated his feats at the last three European Athletics Indoor Championships by winning a 1500/3000m double to become just the second male athlete to complete this double after Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie in Maebashi 1999.
Skotheim also concluded his superlative indoor season by winning his second major heptathlon title having won gold in Apeldoorn two weeks ago with 6558 points, an improvement on his recently set European record of 6484 points in Tallinn.
Double British gold on the track
Jeremiah Azu rounded off his stellar indoor season by adding the world indoor 60m title to his gold medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn.
Azu matched his winning time from two weeks ago, clocking 6.49 to win global gold in Nanjing. His time equalled his lifetime best as well as the venerable Welsh record which he jointly holds with Colin Jackson.
By contrast, Amber Anning was motivated by redemption after an unfortunate disqualification in the 400m heats in Apeldoorn where she was expected to challenge the Dutch favourite and eventual winner Lieke Klaver.
Anning’s path to 400m gold was far from straightforward after coming to blows with Alexis Holmes at the break from lanes but the Brit kept her composure and passed the faltering American in the last 30 metres for gold in 50.60.
Double Italian gold in the jumps
Andy Diaz and Mattia Furlani made it an Italian double in the men’s horizontal jumps in Nanjing in contrasting fashion.
Diaz won the first gold medal of the championships in the triple jump, extending his world lead to 17.80m to win by almost half-a-metre and break the national record of 17.73m held by his coach Fabrizio Donato who was watching from the stands.
In the last field event of the championships, Mattia Furlani landed his first senior title at the age of 20 with a leap of 8.30m to win by one centimetre from Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock, just two weeks after losing out on the European indoor title in Apeldoorn by the same margin.
Yet another global title for Duplantis
Armand Duplantis won his seventh global title since 2021 with a 6.15m clearance in the pole vault but the Swede needed to be close to his best to fend off the challenge of his Greek friend, rival and contemporary Emmanouil Karalis who improved to 6.05m to win silver.
This was a historic competition as it was the first time in event history that two pole vaulters have cleared 6.05m or higher in the same competition.
While the men’s pole vault went to form, there was a surprise in the women’s competition with France’s Marie-Julie Bonnin graduating from European U23 champion to world indoor gold with a 4.75m clearance to equal the French record.
In a reshuffle of the podium from Apeldoorn, Bonnin supplanted Switzerland's Angelica Moser and Slovenia's Tina Sutej - the gold and silver medallists from Apeldoorn - who came home from Nanjing with bronze and silver medals for posterity.
Global titles for Kambundji and Vanninen
Mujinga Kambundji drew on all of her experience to regain the 60m title she won in 2022, clocking 7.04 to turn the tables on world leader and European indoor champion Zaynab Dosso from Italy who had to settle for silver in 7.06.
And in another repeat of the podium from Apeldoorn 2025, Patrizia van der Weken made more history for Luxembourg by winning her country’s first ever medal in World Athletics Indoor Championships history with bronze in 7.07.
Saga Vanninen also became the first Finnish woman to win a world indoor title with pentathlon gold just two weeks after winning the European indoor title in Apeldoorn.
Vanninen scored 4821 points to win the title ahead of Ireland’s Kate O’Connor who upgraded her bronze medal from Apeldoorn to silver in Nanjing with 4742 points, her country's first world indoor medal since Derval O'Rourke won 60m hurdles gold in 2006.
Steven Mills for European Athletics