European indoor gold medallist Menno Vloon secured the Netherlands’ first victory of the European Athletics Team Championships 1st Division in Madrid, winning the men’s pole vault as the sun set on the Royal Palace backdrop on Thursday (26), clearing 5.80m at the second attempt.
The Madrid European Athletics Team Championships 1st Division is being streamed live on the European Athletics website via the Eurovision Sport platform.
“It was a great place to jump in front of the palace, so win win,” said Vloon afterwards. “I am happy to make 16 points for the team, it’s a good start for the others.” The Dutch athlete had three attempts at a personal best of 6.00m, but had to settle for the victory on this occasion.
The highly experienced three-time world medallist Piotr Lisek was second with a first time clearance at 5.70m, before three failures at 5.80m.
Böndör makes big breakthrough
For several others, the setting proved a source of inspiration with four athletes logging personal bests.
On paper, Group B was the second tier of competitors, but the competition caught fire on the second runway. Hungary’s Márton Böndör added a massive 25cm to his personal best coming into the competition with a first time clearance of 5.70m, before two failures at 5.80m.
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Onufriyev added 8cm to his lifetime best, also clearing 5.70m and Finland’s Urho Kujanpää equalled his personal best with a second time clearance of 5.70m. Back in Group A, Matej Šcerba of Czechia who added 3cm to his lifetime best, also clearing 5.70m. The Czech athlete and Böndör shared third place on countback.
Pre-event favourite, Greece’s Olympic bronze medallist Emmanouil Karalis withdrew in the warm-up as a precautionary measure when feeling some discomfort in his foot.