Nina Chioma Ndubuisi confirmed her status as the athlete to beat in the women’s shot put, leading a German medal sweep with a dominant series capped by a massive final-round throw of 17.73m at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships on Thursday (17).
Bergen is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
The only athlete to surpass 16 meters in the morning’s qualifying session, she looked every bit the favourite and wasted no time in underlining her dominance in the final. She screamed as she produced an enormous second-round effort of 17.68 that sent her nearly a metre clear of the field.
German domination with personal bests
Germany looked poised to dominate early on, with all three athletes occupying the top spots by the end of round two. Jolina Lange took the initial lead with a personal best of 16.77m, before Ndubuisi stormed ahead.
Helena Kopp joined in the fun with her German teammates, landing a second round personal best of 16.61m. Greece’s Anastasia Ntragkomirova, more commonly seen in the heptathlon, broke 16 meters for the first time with a 20 centimetre personal best of 16.09m, also in the second round.
However, the battle was far from settled. In the fourth round, Zuzanna Maslana of Poland threw 16.64m to edge past Kopp into third.
Yet the German responded powerfully in the final round with another big personal best of 16.90m to leapfrog into second. Moments later, Lange also produced yet another personal best, a superb throw of 17.04m to reclaim silver and push Kopp back into bronze.
With the medals secured, Ndubuisi closed the competition in fitting style, sending the shot sailing out to 17.73m — the farthest throw of the day — to seal a commanding gold and replicate the German clean sweep from the 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships in Gävle, led by Alina Kenzel.
"The best thing that could have happened"
“It feels amazing,” said a thrilled Ndubuisi. “It feels like weight lifted off my shoulders. I was working all year for this moment and now, I finally made it. To sweep the podium, that is crazy. That is actually the best thing that could have happened.
“Doing the German podium, that is the dream. I was trying to get close to my PR. After coming from the US, at the nationals [NCAA Championships where she finished third] there was my peak, and I had to build up again today. But basically, I tried to keep improving throughout out the meet.
“In the final throw, I almost managed 18 metres so that is amazing. It means that all my hard work just pays off. My whole family is at home right now, probably screaming. I do not know, I am so excited because it is just so amazing, what happened today.
"This victory proves that whatever you dream of, even if it looks difficult, you can win it and get the gold.”