The youngest athlete in the final, Italy’s Matteo Sioli leapt to high jump gold with a lifetime best of 2.30m on the final evening session of the European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen on Sunday (20).
Still only 19, the European indoor bronze medallist won a medal of a brighter hue in the Fana Stadium with clearances at 2.28m and 2.30m on his first and second attempts respectively to seal the title by two clear heights.
But the big surprise of the competition was Poland’s Mikolaj Szczesny who added seven centimetres to his lifetime best to win a wholly unexpected silver medal.
Only one athlete in the 12-man final had a lower lifetime best on paper than Szczesny but the 20-year-old initially equalled his lifetime best of 2.19m before clearing 2.22m on his second attempt and then 2.24m and 2.26m - both times on his third attempts - to take ownership of the silver medal.
Reigning European U20 champion Melwin Lycke Holm from Sweden - the son of 2004 Olympic champion Stefan who was watching from the sidelines - continues his ascent through the age-group ranks, improving his lifetime best by four centimetres to 2.24m to win bronze.
Romanian double in the horizontal jumps completed
Ramona Elena Verman provided the second part of Romanian double in the women’s horizontal jumps in the women’s long jump.
Drawing inspiration from her teammate and triple jump winner Alexia Ioana Dospin who was watching from the stands, Verman followed in her spikemarks by winning long jump gold in a lifetime best of 6.60m.
In a close and seesawing final which saw the top four separated by four centimetres, Verman landed the winning jump of 6.60m in the fifth round to beat Germany’s Samira Attermeyer and Norway’s Ida Andrea Breigan, both of whom jumped 6.58m.
The silver medal went to Attermeyer by virtue of a better second effort - 6.47m to 6.40m - with Breigan adding a bronze to Norway’s medal tally following Henriette Jaeger’s double exploits on Saturday evening.
“When I woke up today, I felt it. I had a good preparation, trained well for these championships so I was confident. This means everything to me. My first big medal. It is a dream,” said Verman.
