Close contests are anticipated and new stars are expected to emerge in the men’s jumps events and decathlon at the Rieti 2026 European Athletics U18 Championships which begin on Thursday (16) morning.
Past winners in this group of events have included Greece's Emmanouil Karalis who won the pole vault in the first edition in 2016 and Italy's Mattia Furlani who swept the high jump and long jump titles in 2022.
Rieti 2026 will be the fifth edition of the European Athletics U18 Championships and will be streamed live in its entirety on the European Athletics website on 16-19 July with daily highlights on the European Athletics YouTube channel.
In brief
- British indoor triple jump champion Tito Odunaike makes his major international debut and could challenge the championship record
- Exciting long jump competition features Maidis Gorrillot, one of just four Europeans in this age group to have broken 8.00m in history
- Czechia v Estonia battle anticipated in the decathlon
Five to watch
- Tito Odunaike (GBR) - triple jump
- Maidis Gorrillot (FRA) - long jump
- Botond Horvath (HUN) - long jump
- Dawid Baranski (POL) - high jump/triple jump
- Sebastian Andrejev (CZE) - decathlon
At 16, Tito Odunaike made headlines domestically this February when he won the British indoor triple jump title in Birmingham, becoming the youngest male winner of a national indoor senior title since 1979.
And the multi-talented Brit will be aiming to convert this success to the continental stage in Rieti. Odunaike, who began his athletics journey as a long jumper, bounded out to 16.01m to win the British Indoor Championships and he has since improved to 16.12m, setting that mark in almost still air at the prestigious Mannheim Junior Gala in June.
Odunaike, who leads the 2026 world U18 list with that mark, is the only jumper on the entry-list who has broken the 16 metre-barrier. The only other jumper to have gone further than 15.50m is Greece’s Dimitrios Moumouris, the silver medallist at last year’s European Youth Olympic Festival, who improved to 15.74m to win his national U18 title.
Odunaike’s primary objective will be to win but it is far from inconceivable the 17-year-old could challenge the championship record which dates back to the inaugural European Athletics U18 Championships in Tbilisi in 2016 when France’s Martin Lamou jumped 16.03m. He remains the only triple jumper to have broken the 16 metre-barrier in the decade-long history of the championships.
Long jump talents to clash
The men’s long jump will also provide us with a glimpse of another rising French talent in the horizontal jumps: Maidis Gorrillot (pictured). He became just the fourth European U18 in history to break the eight metre-barrier last year, jumping 8.00m exactly.
Gorrillot hasn’t quite reached these distances so far in 2026 but the 17-year-old has a season’s best of 7.60m which puts him second on the entry-list behind Hungary’s Botond Horvath. He jumped 7.68m during the indoor season although he hasn’t jumped as far as Gorrillot outdoors so far this year.
Based on the final entries, the men’s high jump and pole vault could be two of the closest and most competitive events of the championships.
Behind European U18 leader Dawid Baranski, who has cleared 2.14m this year and will also contest the triple jump in Rieti, the next 10 jumpers on the entry-list have either cleared 2.08m or 2.09m in 2026. This tightly-packed bunch includes Italian U18 champion Andrea Campani who has improved to 2.08m this year.
The men’s pole vault entry-list is headed by Czechia’s Lukas Kratochvil who arrives in excellent form having cleared a lifetime best of 5.11m in his most recent competition to win a three-way international match in Nyiregyhaza.
Kratochvil is one of eight vaulters on the entry-list to have cleared 5.00m or higher this year. The entry-list also includes Germany’s Jonathan Hummel who has cleared 5.10m while the hosts will also have medal prospects through Gabriele Belardi who cleared a lifetime best of 5.02m to win the Italian U18 title in Grosseto last month.
Belardi will have added motivation to make the podium in his final year in this age-group after just missing out on a medal in fourth at the European Youth Olympic Festival last year.
Meanwhile, the favourites for the decathlon title all hail from nations with a rich and enduring tradition in the combined events: Czechia and Estonia.
The entry-list is headed by the Czech duo of Sebastian Andrejev and Vitek Strnad who have improved their lifetime bests to 7506 points and 7485 points respectively in 2026.
But just behind them on the entry-list are the Estonian tandem of Aleksandr Metsmaker and Hank-Gerhard Hausenberg. They have scored 7321 points and 7225 points respectively this year and will be in contention to keep the title in Estonian hands following Tristan Konso’s victory in Banska Bystrica in 2024.
Hank-Gerhard will be looking to emulate his older brother Hans-Christian who has won a major medal in his age-group. He won decathlon bronze at the final iteration of the World Athletics U18 Championships in Cali, Colombia in 2015.
Main photo courtesy of Baptiste Daniel / capturemysport / FFA
