World and European indoor gold medallist Saga Vanninen smashed her 100m hurdles personal best in the opening event of the women’s heptathlon at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships on Saturday (19).
Bergen 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
She clocked 13.25 (+1.1m/s) in the 100m hurdles, slicing 0.09 from her previous best. The Finn followed up with a best clearance of 1.80m in the high jump, just 1cm below her personal best, to take charge of the competition with 2065 points after two events.
France’s Maeva Bastien occupies silver medal position with 1995 points after logging 13.73 in the 100m hurdles and 1.80m in the high jump. Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Abigail Pawlett is placed in third with 1982 after clocking 13.06 and clearing 1.71m.
Jaeger double dream lives on
Henriette Jaeger’s dream of a sprint double remains on track. The Norwegian booked her place in the women’s 200m final, winning her semi final in 23.04 (-1.3m/s). She tore into the lead on the bend, took some glances towards her opponents eased to qualification.
She will now line up in both the women’s 200m final and 400m final on Saturday evening, a mere three hours apart. Her biggest threats come from British sprinters Success Eduan, who won the other 200m semi final in 22.90 (-1.3m/s) and 400m defending champion Yemi Mary John.
In the men’s 200m final, defending champion Blessing Akwasi Afrifah of Israel was in cruise control in the semi-finals, qualifying fastest with 20.59 (-1.4m/s).
Kesidis leaves it late in men's hammer
In the men’s hammer, Greece’s Angelos Mantzouranis headed the qualifiers with a heave of 73.38m. World U20 champion Iosif Kesidis left it late, the Cypriot was facing elimination before unleashing a final round throw of 71.90m to clinch a place in Sunday’s final.
The German medal assault on the throws looks set to continue with Tizian Lauria topping the men’s shot put qualifiers with 19.72m. The defending champion from Espoo 2023 was over half-a-metre clear of the rest of the field.
Another German athlete, Samira Attermeyer headed the women’s long jump qualifiers with 6.64m (+2.6m/s).
Razvan-Ioan Nicoara of Romania led the men's triple jump qualifiers with 16.08m to give hope to a possible Romanian double following the victory by Alexia Ioana Dospin in the women's event on Friday (18). Spain's Ines Lopez was the lead qualifier in the women's discus with 56.35m.
In the men’s 3000m steeplechase, the Netherlands’ Stefan Nillessen stayed on track for a distance double, qualifying with 8:42.05 in third place in the first semi. The Dutch athlete will be looking to defend his men’s 1500m title in the final on Saturday evening.