Iosif Kesidis added the European U23 title to his growing collection as he won the men’s hammer at Bergen 2025 on Saturday.
Bergen 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
The Cypriot who won world U20 gold in Lima last year and European U18 gold in Jerusalem landed a new personal best and national U23 record of 74.87m, adding 86cm to his personal best to win gold. Greece took silver and bronze courtesy of Georgios Papanastasiou (72.98m) and Ioannis Korakidis (72.51m)
"I am very happy about this competition and about my result of 74,87m with the national U23 record," said Kesidis afterwards.
"It is a very big for achievement for me to be the gold medallist. My next ambitions are the World University in Germany and the Balkan Games. And my big goal is Tokyo.
"My joy is even bigger because we have a Greek speaking podium. I know these guys, we go on training camps together. Having them with me in the final helped me. We give each other advice and of course, they help me to improve during the competition."
Lopez wins biggest title of career in women's discus
Spanish champion Ines Lopez had the biggest win of her career, taking gold in the women’s U23 discus competition. Lopez led Saturday’s qualifiers and she proved to be the best of a closely matched pack in the final.
She opened with a new Spanish U23 record of 58.20m to take a grip on proceedings from the start. Italy’s Benedetta Benedetti responded with a third round heave of 56.98m, a new personal best.
Germany’s Milina Wepiwé unleashed a fourth round effort of 56.82m for bronze, adding to the European U20 silver she won two years ago in Jerusalem. Lopez landed the second best throw of the competition with a fourth round 57.40m to put the seal on gold.
"Right now, I am a little bit confused about everything what just happened," said the new champion. "There are so many emotions. Everything I wanted to do from the very beginning is to start with a solid throw, like nothing crazy, just to qualify.
"I was not expecting 58 in the first throw. I was like- 56 and I start building up. So that was just a huge throw finally breaking the 58m. That was somthing I was focusing for a long time."
