World U20 shot put champion Jarno Van Daalen from the Netherlands is aiming for gold medals in both the shot put and discus at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere from 7-10 August.
Tampere 2025 will be streamed live in its entirety on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport and will be accompanied by expert English-language commentary.
There will be event-by-event reports, full results, live blog, daily highlights on YouTube and extensive coverage across all European Athletics social media channels Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, and WhatsApp.
Van Daalen with double title ambitions
And if Van Daalen was to achieve this double, he would follow in the footsteps of his older sister Alida who won the very same double at the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships which were also held on Finnish soil in Espoo.
Van Daalen leads the European U20 list in both disciplines with 21.08m in the shot put and 66.31m in the discus. His opposition includes two Finnish throwers who also have their sights on a brace of medals in Tampere.
Aatu Kangasniemi holds the extremely rare and unusual distinction of being ranked second on the European U20 list in both the shot put and the hammer with 20.51m and 76.32m respectively for the U20 6kg implements.
One possible barrier to Kangasniemi’s dual ambitions is the fact that both finals are scheduled within a four hour window on Friday. If the 19-year-old does come away with medals in both events, this would make his achievements all the more remarkable.
In the discus, one of Van Daalen’s principal rivals is world U20 bronze medallist Mico Lampinen who will also compete in the hammer. Lampinen’s primary event is the discus - he is third on the entry-list with 62.74m - but the 19-year-old also has an outside chance of a medal in the hammer with a 73.10m season’s best.
And if he makes the podium in the latter event, he would follow in the footsteps of his older brother Max who won the European U20 hammer title in 2023.
Championship record under threat in men’s hammer
However, the outstanding favourite for the hammer title is Armin Szabados who looks poised to continue Hungary’s long and revered tradition in the event.
Szabados leads the entry-list ahead of Kangasniemi by over six metres with 82.93m with the U20 6kg implement and the 19-year-old is closing in on a brace of records, including the European U20 and championship record of 84.73m with the 6kg implement set by Ukraine’s Mykhailo Kokhan in 2019.
Szabados surpassed Kokhan’s mark in late May in a competition on Hungarian soil in Szombathely with a throw which was measured at 85.21m. However, the event was not listed on the World Athletics Global Calendar so the mark was not ratified.
There will also be keen interest in the men’s javelin, particularly in the prospects of Topi Parviainen, the nephew of 2001 world champion and Finnish record-holder Aki.
The younger Parviainen slingshotted himself to prominence three years ago at the European Athletics U18 Championships by winning javelin gold by over 10 metres with a European U18 best of 84.52m when he was only 15.
Now 18, Parviainen is back in the fray for another European age-group medal. He has improved to 71.71m with the senior implement which puts him seventh on the entry-list which is headed by Spain’s Rafael Mahiques (77.60m) and Poland’s European U18 silver medallist Roch Krukowski (74.99m).
The entry-list also features fellow Finn Juho Soikkeli who has improved to 73.16m this year and last year’s European U18 champion Pietro Villa from Italy.
European U18 champions Mourie and Idinna in title contention
France won three of the four gold medals in the men’s jumps at the recent European Youth Olympic Festival in Skopje and Les Bleus have excellent prospects of matching - or even bettering - this feat in Tampere.
One of the gold medallists in the North Macedonian capital last month was Remi Mourie who also won the long jump title at the European Athletics U18 Championships last year.
Still only 17, Mourie is the only jumper in the field to have broken the eight metre-barrier this year with 8.05m. He faces a field replete with talent including the precocious Daniele Inzoli who jumped an outright lifetime best of 7.93m to win the Italian indoor senior title aged 16 in February.
However, Inzoli hasn’t competed since late May so there have to be question marks over his current form and fitness. But if he does recapture his best form and win gold in Tampere, he would follow in the footsteps of compatriot Mattia Furlani who won gold two years ago in a championship record of 8.23m.
Another title contender is Czechia’s Petr Meindlschmid who finished an excellent seventh at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in Rome in a lifetime best of 8.03m. The 18-year-old is slightly down on this form in 2025 with a season’s best of 7.82m but has a proven ability to break the eight metre-barrier.
Mourie’s teammate Emmanuel Idinna will also be targeting back-to-back age-group titles in the triple jump after winning European U18 gold last year. The 16-year-old has improved to 15.92m this year and is second on the entry-list, just behind Romania’s Eduard Florin Unguroaica with 15.94m.
Bulgaria is another country with a rich tradition in the triple jump and their newest prospect in the event is Zinga Barbosa Firmino who recently jumped a lifetime best of 15.88m to win the Balkan U20 title in Craiova. Incidentally, European U20 leader Unguroaica who had to settle for bronze in that competition.
Close vertical jumps and decathlon contests expected
Frenchmen Elijah Pasquier and Leonard Nowoczyn are two of the favourites for the high jump title. Pasquier cleared a lifetime best of 2.21m in his most recent competition while Nowoczyn has cleared 2.20m this season as has Great Britain’s Otis Poole, the surprise winner of the British indoor senior title in February.
The men’s pole vault could be a France versus Spain contest with the top six spots on the entry-list occupied by athletes exclusively from those two countries.
The entry-list is headed by the Spanish duo of Asier Angora and Fabio Marco, both of whom cleared 5.41m during the indoor season. The French triumvirate is composed of Jules De La Faye de Guerre (5.37m), Jules Courel (5.36m) and Zackaria Dia (5.36m), the latter a recent gold medallist at the European Youth Olympic Festival.
The Spanish trio also includes Adria Ripolles who cleared a lifetime best of 5.35m to finish second at the Spanish U20 Championships behind Angora.
The decathlon promises to be a high quality competition with the entry-list featuring Poland’s Hubert Troscianka and Florian Vriezen from the Netherlands, the silver and bronze medallists respectively at last year’s World Athletics U20 Championships.
But the entry-list is headed by another Dutchman in 18-year-old Luuk Pelkmans - 11th at last year’s World Athletics U20 Championships - the only decathlete in the field to have broken the 8000 points-barrier this year with 8016 points in the U20 iteration of the 10-event competition.
Recent winners of the European U20 decathlon title have included Kevin Mayer (2011), Niklas Kaul (2017) and Simon Ehammer (2019), all of whom have gone on to win major senior continental titles among their list of accolades.
