Armin Szabados produced a massive throw on his first attempt in hammer qualifying on the first morning session of the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland on Thursday (7) morning.
The Hungarian hurled the 6kg implement out to an incredible 80.68m to seal a comfortable passage into the final. This was only the fourth throw in excess of the 80 metre-line with the U20 implement in the history of the European Athletics U20 Championships as well as the longest hammer throw in qualifying history.
Szabados leads the entry-list with a recently set lifetime best of 82.93m and the 19-year-old could have his sights on the European U20 record and championship record set by Ukraine’s Mykhailo Kokhan with 84.73m in Boras 2019.
Other notable qualifiers included the Finnish duo of Mico Lampinen and Aatu Kangasniemi who progressed through to the final with 74.16m and 73.11m respectively, the third and fifth best performances across the two pools.
Lampinen, who has also entered the discus in Tampere, will be looking to extend the familial tradition in this event at the championships after his older brother Max won gold two years ago in Jerusalem.
In shot put qualifying, reigning world U20 champion Jarno Van Daalen - who has his sights on both the shot put and discus titles in Tampere - landed the automatic qualifying standard of 18.70m to precision, throwing 18.70m exactly on his first attempt.
Van Daalen was one of six automatic qualifiers for tomorrow’s final. The two pools were led by European U18 discus champion Jakub Rodziak who set a lifetime best of 18.84m while Aatu Kangasniemi qualified for his second final of the morning with 18.77m.
Troscianka leads early stages of the decathlon
World U20 decathlon silver medallist Hubert Troscianka has made an excellent start to his decathlon campaign and leads after three events in Tampere with 2614 points.
Troscianka began proceedings with a lifetime best of 10.74 in the 100m - one of the few 100m races this morning which had the advantage of a following wind - and maintained his lead with a 7.26m long jump and 15.48m shot put.
Troscianka leads the standings ahead of the Netherlands’ European U20 leader Luuk Pelkmans (2582 points) and Sweden’s Elias Kapell (2513 points). The latter produced the second best long jump performance of the day with 7.46m but lost some ground on Troscianka after 13.88m in the shot put.
14.00m for Saraceni in triple jump qualifying
Italy’s Erika Saraceni embellished her credentials as the favourite for the women’s triple jump title after landing at 14.00m in qualifying, the longest jump across the two pools by some 66 centimetres.
Saraceni’s jump was the sixth longest jump in the history of the European Athletics U20 Championships and the 19-year-old could challenge the long standing championship record of 14.12m which had stood to Russia’s Anastasiya Ilyina since 2001.
All of the main contenders progressed through to the men’s long jump final albeit in contrasting styles. On a blustery morning in Tampere, Czechia’s Petr Meindlschmid - who made the European outdoor final in Rome last year - equalled his season’s best with 7.82m to lead the two pools of qualifying ahead of the precocious Italian Daniele Inzoli who jumped 7.63m on his first attempt before eschewing his last two attempts.
Reigning European U18 champion and European U20 leader with 8.05m Remi Mourie from France also made it through to the final but only as the seventh best qualifier with 7.36m.
