After a decade-long wait almost to the day, Croatia’s Sara Kolak returns to the top of the podium in a major championship.
Having won Olympic gold in 2016 at the age of 21, Kolak added the European title to her list of accolades at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday (16).
In summary
- Sara Kolak wins her second major title after a 10 year wait
- Kolak wins the title with a first round throw of 62.43m
- Adriana Vilagos wins her third successive European medal
What they said
Sara Kolak (CRO)
"This is a phenomenal victory. Finally after 10 years, another big gold. For the last 10 years, I never gave up and I am proud of it. I was fighting today and I believed in myself. I even managed to enjoy the competition thanks to this amazing crowd. We battled a little bit with the wind, but yes, I did it."
Julia Ulbricht (GER)
"I was very pleased with my first throw which proved my best but the rest of the competition did not really go to plan for me. It was quite windy but I also had some technical things that did not work well tonight."
Adriana Vilagoš (SRB)
"This year, I really did not want to be silver. But it is a bronze medal, it is not the distance what I wanted and waited for at these championships. But sometimes, I just need to fight with different distances I hope for. It was a tough night but I managed to throw over 60 metres, so I can be glad. And a medal is a medal. First, we need to chill a little bit and then fix a few things at the trainings sessions."