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| Liina Laasma of Estonia cheered the home crowd by winning the javelin gold at the European Athletics Junior Championships on the final day. |
Surely someone had written the script.
If they had, Liina Laasma followed it to perfection in Tallinn today as the host nation’s great medal hope delivered a fairy tale ending as she snatched the women’s javelin title with her very last throw of the penultimate event on the final day of the 21st Euroepan Athletics Junior championships.
Talk about leaving the best till last. It was Estonia’s only gold, indeed its only medal of the four day championships.
But if that was rousing finale it was only one of the highlights on an action-packed final day that saw long-standing championships records fall in the men’s decathlon, steeplechase and 400 hurdles, and the women’s 4x100m, while the record was equalled in the women’s high jump.
It was Laasma who captured the home fans’ hearts, however, as she produced the perfect ending to a hugely successful event.
In front of the biggest crowd of the championships, she’d struggled for five rounds to find her range and was lying out of the medals – way out, in sixth place with a best of just 54.01 – and had just one chance left.
But sometimes one chance is all you need, and with the competition dribbling to an uninspiring close, Laasma suddenly found a big throw when she needed it most. She summoned all her strength and unleashed the spear to 55.99 – leaping into first place by 16cm.
The crowd may have been small but the noise was deafening.
Laasma leapt in the air, rolled on the ground and ran to hug her coach before running across the infield with her nation’s flag wrapped around her shoulders.
“I still can't believe what I just did,” she said some minutes later when she eventually found her way to the mixed zone.
“To get the title with the final attempt, this is the greatest achievement of my life. Now I'm going to think about it for a while and just enjoy.”
As will the rest of Estonia.
Indeed, it was an enjoyable final day all round.
Especially for France, whose Kevin Mayer added European junior gold to the world title he won last year amassing 8124 points to break the 22-year-old championships record by 110. At one point, he’d even had Torsten Voss’s world junior record in his sights, but that slipped away when he was short of his best in the javelin. It hardly mattered, certainly not to him.
His only hiccups on an otherwise imperious march towards the gold was the frist event, the100m, back on Saturday monring. After that he set personal bests in the long jump (7.52), shot put (14.65), 110m hurdles (14.09), and discus (41.00).
And the tussle-haired Frenchman finished it in style as he led from start to finish in the final 1500m before crossing the line in 4:25.23.
“It was a beautiful event,” he said. Gemany took second and third through Matthias Brügger and Johannes Hock.
In fact, France had a fine final day as Pierre Ambroise Bosse added another gold to their total with a front running victory in the men’s 800, and Emile Denecker delivered pole vault gold ahead of his teammate Kévin Ménaldo.
The flying French sprinters also struck gold in the men’s 4x100m, beating back the British challenge with a slick display.
The men’s steeplechase was a beautiful event too, at least for lgizar Safiullin who stormed home to win gold by a massive margin and break the championships record by nearly three seconds.
The Russian won with half the length of the finishing straight between him and Emin Tan of Türkiye in 8:37.94 – not only a championships record but a Russian record too.
His compatriot Mariya Kuchina also clinched gold for Russia equalling Yelena Yelesina’s championships record with 1.95 in the high jump, while Alexander Yurchenko won the men’s triple jump and Vera Rudakova took the women’s 400m hurdles in 57.24.
Germans were celebrating too, not least because of Varg Königsmark who eclipsed the 28-year-old championships record to win the men’s 400m hurdles title in 49.70, and their women’s 4x100m relay quartet who smashed a 30-year-old CR and eclipsed an old GDR European junior record that’s stood since 1988. They flew round the track in 43.42.
Amela Terzić made it two in two days for Serbia as she added the 1500m title to the 3000m crown she claimed on Saturday, outsprinting world silver medallist Ciara Mageean to cross the line in 4:15.40, while Türkiye’s Esma Aydemir turned silver to gold by outkicking two fancied Britons to win the women’s 5000m in 16:12.16 just a day after finishing second in the 3000m.
Britain may have messed up in the women’s 4x100, but they won the 4x400 relay thanks to a thrilling last leg by Kirsten McAslan. And Italy brought the championships to a rousing conclusion with an impressive victory in the men’s 4x4.
After missing out in the shot put final two days ago, Lukas Weisshaidinger bounced back to take the men’s discus with the best performance of his life. Weisshaidinger did it in singular style – a massive third round effort of 63.83 that exceeded his previous lifetime best by a metre and a half.
And finally, Lena Malkus added a seventh title to Germany’s tally by wininng the women’s long jump this evening with 6.40, lifting her nation above Britain into second place on the medal table, just one gold behind Russia.