With six months to go until the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships, two exciting 400m prospects for the biennial event feature in the mini documentary series My Fire on the European Athletics YouTube channel.
Anastazja Kuś is one of the emerging generation of Polish athletics stars in an event that has a rich heritage in the country. At senior level, Natalia Bukowiecka (then Kaczmarek) won one lap gold at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, following in the spike marks of Justyna Święty-Ersetic who triumphed at Berlin 2018.
Kuś established her credentials by winning 400m gold at the Banska Bystrica 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships.
Madelief van Leur was third behind Kus in Banska Bystica - silver went to Great Britain's Kara Dacosta. The Dutch athlete is another following in a golden lineage of national sprinting greats, including European 400m and 400m hurdles gold medallist Femke Bol and Dafne Schippers, twice world champion over 200m.
My Fire charts the behind-the-scenes story of the two athletes competing in the women's 400m final and their first major international successes in Slovakia. The duo are likely to be renewing rivalries at Tampere 2025, which takes place in the Finnish city on 7-10 August.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics