Håkon Moe Berg matched his illustrious compatriot Jakob Ingebrigtsen in taking a distance double by winning the men’s 1500m at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere on Sunday (10). It was also a Norwegian 1-2 with Andreas Dybdahl taking silver.
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
It was a masterclass of tactics and speed from the Moe Berg, who was equally impressive in winning the 3000m on Saturday.
At Grosseto 2017, Ingebrigtsen won the 3000m steeplechase and 5000m golds, but a tumble meant he placed eighth in the 1500m. But there were no such slip ups from the highly impressive Moe Berg, who ran the perfect race.
Italy’s Marco Coppolla and Hungary’s Albert Szirbek led with two laps to go. But Moe Berg surged to the front with 700 metres to go with Belgium’s Elliot Vermeulen following him to the front. The Norwegian kicked again at the bell and strung out the field.
Vermeulen moved alongside him on the back straight, but Moe Berg sensibly kept him on his outside around the bend and made another kick with 150 metre to go. This time it was decisive. The Belgian was beaten, and Moe Berg could celebrate, winning in style in 3:47.36.
Vermeulen was overhauled by Dybdahl in the finishing straight who finished in 3:47.95, but he was rewarded with bronze just 0.08 behind.
"The most difficult part of this race was the technical aspect. I did not know if I should push like from the start or stay behind," said Moe Berg. "So I ended up staying like behind. When there was 500m to go then I just slowly ramped up the pace. We have got a lot of good guys and it is very hard to beat these guys so my all respect goes to them definitely.
"The season has been mostly like up and downs. Generally a really good season. I have a few races to go. Hopefully I will continue with the momentum I have right now."
Becker wins in blanket finish 800m
Jana Marie Becker of Germany came through a closely contested sprint finish to win the women’s 800m race.
There were five athletes in contention at the bell, including top ranked Marta Mitjans of Spain, Britain’s European U18 silver medallist Shaikira King, 15-year-old Slovenian Živa Remic and Italy’s Lorenza de Noni, fifth in last year’s World U20 Championships.
Remic made the first move, taking the lead. But Mitjans came alongside her on the back straight and looked set to take over, but the youngster kept her on her right shoulder and made the Spaniard go the long way round the turn.
As they entered the home straight, Mitjans began to tire and Becker, who had been tracking the leaders, found a clear route on the outside and chipped away at Remic’s lead. She just had the edge in the closing straight, winning in 2:01.67 to claim the biggest title of her career so far, surpassing European U18 silver won back in 2022.
The brave Remic took silver in a personal best of 2:01.76 and de Roni overcame a diving Mitjan at the line to take bronze by 0.04 in 2:01:86.
Kara wins thrilling steeplechase for Türkiye
Kiyasettin Kara of Türkiye won an exciting men’s 3000m steeplechase, taking the lead at the final water jump from Spain’s Marti Torregrossa and running clear to win gold in a national U20 record of 8:43.55.
In a hard-run race, Tiago Machado of Portugal was an early leader, but with five laps to go Poland’s Jakub Abramczyk took over. But the Pole took a dousing in the water jump as the pack approached three laps to go and fell away from contention.
There was a lead pack of seven as the bell sounded led by Torregrossa and Germany’s Jakob Rödel, which also included Kara, his Turkish colleague Hasan Can Akdemir and Torregrossa’s Spanish teammates Andres Lara and Bakr El Asri.
Torregrossa spurted clear first and stretched a lead down the back straight with Rödel his closest pursuer. But Kara picked his moment to perfection and kicked from 200 metres driving away from Rödel and onto the shoulder of the Spaniard.
He exited the water jump just in front, resisted Torregrossa’s challenge on the final straight and ran clear for gold off the final barrier. Torregrossa hung on for silver in a personal best of 8:45.20.
An exhausted Rödel was chased down by Lara who snatched bronze in 8:45.53, another personal best, one of eight in the race.
"I am picking up the fruits that I have been planting for the last seven years," said the gold medallist. "This was my full effort during these years. My family is watching right now and I want to thank them for the full support and also to my coach.
"Before I came here, I gave them a promise that I would win a medal in Tampere. I started steeplechase this year. Before that, I was doing middle and long distances, and also cross country. But I changed the event to this one because we believed that I would have a chance to win gold in this event. Also, we were thinking about competing at 5000m but we did not want to risk this one."