Italy’s European U18 200m champions Diego Nappi and Elisa Valensin safely navigated the 200m heats on Friday (8) at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships.
Nappi topped the men’s qualifiers, winning the first heat in 20.95 (+0.1m/s). Valensin was second in heat one of the women’s qualifiers with 24.15 (-1.2m/s). The women’s fastest qualifier was Great Britain’s Lucy Tallon, winner of heat three in 23.65 (-1.2m/s)
5000m winner FitzGerald keeps double bid on track
18 hours after winning the women’s 5000m gold on Thursday (8), Innes FitzGerald returned to the Ratina Stadium to for the 3000m heats. The British athlete looked completely at ease as she won heat one in 9:19.41 to take another step towards a distance double.
There was chaos in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with multiple fallers, including France’s Zoe Bourhis who tumbled twice but still made it through in fifth place in heat one. Serbia’s Mejra Mehmedovic won heat two in 10:20.59 to qualify fastest for Saturday’s final.
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In the men’s 1500m heats, Belgium’s Elliot Vermeulen was an impressively relaxed winner of heat one in 3:44.20.
In a stacked second heat, recently crowned Norwegian senior champion Håkon Moe Berg cruised through heat two behind teammate Andreas Dybdahl, the duo exchanging pleasantries as they finished in 3:55.16 and 3:55.24 respectively.
Also progressing in close proximity from that heat were European U18 champion Fillip Toul of Czechia and European U18 3000m champion Aldin Catovic.
Estonia’s Allika Inkeri Moser, who recently set a world U18 best, made a first clearance of 4.10m to safely book a place in Sunday’s women’s pole vault final. In the women’s hammer qualifier, Sweden’s Patricia Kamga topped the qualifiers with 69.14m.