Croatia’s Roko Farkaš is the overnight leader of the men’s decathlon after the opening five events at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships on Thursday (17). The national senior record-holder, who won the world U20 gold for the long jump in Lima last year, was in brilliant form at the Fana Stadion.
The Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships are being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of the Eurovision Sport Platform.
He opened with the quickest 100m of the field, winning heat four in 10.73 (-1.6m/s). The 20-year-old extended his advantage in the long jump, which he also won with 7.78m (+2.4m/s). Although not his strongest event, he kept it together with a personal best 13.69m in the shot put.
Farkaš cleared 2.00m in the high jump and finished the day with 47.85m in the 400m for a first day total of 4355 points.
"Satisfied...but not happy"
The Croatian is by no means out of reach of the chasing pack, Great Britain’s Sammy Ball is just 101 points behind after a solid series of events, including equalling his high jump personal best of 8.03m. Also poised is Jeff Tesselaar, who leads the 2025 European U23 decathlon list, on 4168 in third place.
The Dutch athlete was quite content with his day’s work and particularly pleased with a new shot put lifetime best of 14.08m.
“Overall I am satisfied with day one but not happy,” he said. “My 100m was good, the long jump was solid, but I was expecting more. “
"In the shot put I achieved a PB. In the high jump I stayed 3cm under my PB and was nearly as high as in Götzis and the 400m were good. I achieved my second fastest time. The organisers did their best to put up the best championships. I like this clean Scandinavian environment.”