Jakob Ingebrigtsen opened his campaign for a third successive golden double at the Apeldoorn 25 European Athletics Indoor Championships by cruising through the men’s 1500m heats on Thursday (6).
The Norwegian showed plenty of his customary confidence winning heat one in 3:37.49. He was content to sit at the back of the pack with just over three of the 200m laps to go. At that point, he accelerated through the field and with 300m metres to go, he took command at the front and ran unthreatened to the finish.
"This championship is all about the medals," he said afterwards. "I do not think we can expect crazy times, but in the finals all the athletes will do the things that they believe will give them the most amount of success. So I guess we will see tomorrow."
He will be joined in Friday’s (7) final by 2023 silver and bronze medallists Neil Gourley of Great Britain and France’s Azeddine Habz, who finished first and second in heat three in 3:40.24 and 3:40.43 respectively.
Hunter Bell leads women's 1500m qualifiers
In the women’s 1500m, Olympic bronze medallist Georgia Hunter Bell led the qualifiers for Friday’s final, winning heat two from start to finish in 4:11.40.
France’s Agathe Guillemot, who was one place behind Hunter Bell at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships winning bronze, slotted in behind the British athlete placing second in 4:11.40 to safely book her passage.
Also qualifying was Esther Guerrero, winning heat three in 4:14.21 Having placed fourth at both Istanbul 2023 and Roma 2024, the Spaniard will be hoping to go at least one place better in the final.
Hurdles heating up
The 60m hurdles events promise to be among the most competitive of the entire championships and the men’s and women’s heats only added to the intrigue.
Two-time champion Nadine Visser of the Netherlands got the home crowd out of their seats in the women’s 60m hurdles, winning heat one in 7.89. Gold medallist in Glasgow 2019 and Torun 2021, she also took silver in Istanbul two years ago and will be keen to maintain her fine record at these championships.
"I would not say I got emotional when I was presented at the start, but I felt that the crowd had an impact on me," said Visser afterwards. "A national record would be nice, and I think it is needed to win as well."
But there will be a host of contenders in Friday’s (7) semifinals and final. Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji, bronze medallist in Istanbul 2023, won heat two in 7.92 and Poland’s Munich 2022 100m hurdles Pia Skrzyszowska won heat three in 7.88, the fastest time of. theday.
European leader Laeticia Bapte had a nervy start to her campaign. Firstly, she looked to have been given the benefit of the doubt when the officials brandished a green card indicating a faulty start at the first attempt at heat four.
When they got underway, the French athlete was in control at the half way point, but faltered slightly and finished 0.04 behind Ireland’s Sarah Lavin who won in 7.93.
In the men’s 60m hurdles, it was French athletes Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey who impressed the most. Belocian won heat two in 7.46, the fastest ever ran in qualification at a European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Teammate Kwaou-Mathey very almost matched the feat, winning heat three in 7.47, 0.09 ahead of second placed defending champion Jason Joseph of Switzerland. European leader Jakub Szymanski of Poland also eased through, winning heat four in 7.51.
In his first race of the indoor season, Italy’s Lorenzo Simonelli was understandably rusty and qualified based on a time of 7.66, in placing fourth in heat two.
Furlani qualifies fifth
In the men’s long jump, Olympic bronze and European silver medallist Mattia Furlani qualified fifth for Friday’s (7) final with 7.95m. Portugal's Gerson Balde was the leading qualifier with a first round leap of 8.11m.
In the women’s triple jump, defending champion Ana Peleteiro-Compaoré secured automatic qualification in her second attempt, landing at 14.14m. The Spaniard heads the qualifiers for Friday’s (7) final.
European champion outdoors Angelica Moser of Switzerland progressed with minimal fuss in the women’s pole vault qualifiers, with just two jumps. Following a first time clearance at 4.45m, she repeated the feat at 4.55m and that was enough to secure one of the eight places in Saturday’s (8) final.
Slovenia’s Tina Sutej, twice a silver medallist at the last two editions of this championships, also qualified with an identical card to Moser.
Whilst in the men’s high jump, 2.23m was good enough to lead the qualifiers which included Ukraine’s Roma 2024 bronze medallist and European leader Oleh Doroshchuk.
There was some disappointment for the home crowd as defending champion Douwe Amels was eliminated, failing with the bar at 2.13m. Likewise, Israel's Jonathan Kapitolnik, who has cleared 2.31m outdoors this year, was also eliminated at 2.13m.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics