Reigning champion Yemi Mary John will be looking to spoil the Norwegian party by retaining her 400m crown at the European Athletics U23 Championships and the Brit edged out home favourite Henriette Jaeger in the semifinals on Friday (18) evening in the Fana Stadium.
Bergen 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
The two main contenders for the title were surprisingly drawn together in the same semifinal - and in adjacent lanes - with the Brit taking a small psychological advantage into the final, nudging clear of Jaeger in the home straight for victory in 51.64 to Jaeger’s 51.69.
Only 0.02 separated John and Jaeger in a classic race at the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships in Espoo where Jaeger memorably threw herself at the line and the scene is set for another exciting head-to-head in tomorrow’s final.
But prior to that, Jaeger has the added complication of the 200m semifinals at 11.00am tomorrow morning. The European indoor 400m silver medallist relishes hard work and she is also expected to feature in Norway’s 4x400m relay team on the last day of the championships.
But assuming she isn’t carrying too much fatigue into the final, Jaeger is expected to upgrade her silver into gold in the 400m. She pushed Lieke Klaver hard to the line in the 400m final at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and has since reduced her Norwegian record to 49.62.
The men’s 400m was billed as a head-to-head between Jonas Phijffers from the Netherlands and Poland’s European indoor silver medallist Maksymilian Szwed and the two leading protagonists progressed through to the final as semifinal winners and with the two fastest times.
Phijffers, who leads the European U23 list with a recently set lifetime best of 44.93, eased down to a 45.23 clocking to win his semifinal. Szwed had to work harder to fend off Spain’s David Garcia for victory in the second semifinal, 45.39 to 45.46.
If the conditions cooperate, it is by no means impossible we could see a sub-45 second winning time in the final. The championship record currently stands to Switzerland’s Ricky Petrucciani at 45.02 from Tallinn 2021.
Newnham solidifies favourite status in 400m hurdles
European U23 leader Emily Newnham made serene progress into the women’s 400m hurdles final, winning the first semifinal in 55.13 - the fifth fastest time in the history of the European Athletics U23 Championships - to qualify fastest for tomorrow’s final.
She will be joined by reigning European U20 champion Moa Granat from Sweden and Finland’s Aada Aho, both of whom won their semifinals in 55.67 and 56.00 respectively.
A trio of Germans also progressed through to the final. Vanessa Balde finished second to Newnham in the first semifinal in a lifetime best of 55.96 before her teammates Vivienne Morgenstern and Yasmin Amaadacho followed suit, clocking 56.22 and 56.27 respectively in the second and third semifinals.
If Newnham prevails tomorrow, she will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Natasha Danvers-Smith and Perri Shakes-Drayton who won gold in 1999 and 2009 respectively.
By contrast the men’s 400m hurdles is more difficult to call with the eight qualifiers from the three semifinals separated by a mere 0.64.
The fastest qualifier was Antti Sainio who made history by becoming the first Finnish athlete in history to break the 49 second-barrier in the 400m hurdles, taking his country’s national record down to 48.97.
European U23 leader Owe Fischer-Breiholz from Germany won his semifinal in 49.30 while reigning champion Ismail Nezir from Türkiye looks poised to put up a staunch defence of his title, winning the third semifinal in commanding fashion in 49.52.
“The other guys are really nice and are very good runners but don't worry,” said Nezir. “I will take the gold in the final.”