Spanish capital sizzles in heatwave conditions as the Netherlands impress in 4x100m relays, Tentóglou shines in the long jump and Italy edge closer to a successful title defence
The Netherlands caught the eye with a clean sweep of the sprint relays at the end of Saturday’s session at the European Team Championships in Madrid. But it was the all-round consistency of Italy that propelled them into 24-point lead ahead of the final day.
It means the Azzurri are hot favourites to successfully defend the crown they won in Poland in 2023.
With just Sunday evening’s session remaining, Germany are Italy’s closest challengers, with Poland third followed by Netherlands, Britain and the hosts Spain.
At the bottom of the 16-strong first division, Lithuania look doomed to relegation with Finland and Ukraine also battling to stay in the top league.
Apart from the scorching temperatures of 37C at the green CONICA track in the Edstadio de Vallehermoso, the biggest talking point was probably the impressive relay performances by the Dutch.
Their men’s and women’s teams both set championship and national records with 37.87 and 42.02 respectively, bringing to a close a great night of athletics.
The Dutch men’s team included Nsikak Ekpo, Taymir Burnet, Xavi Mo-Ajok and Elvis Afrifa as Germany placed second in 38.27 and Britain third with 38.33.
The Dutch female quartet was Nadine Visser, Lieke Klaver, Minke Bisschops and Marije van Hunenstijn as they held off Spain – the hosts running a national record of 42.11 – and third-placed Germany with 42.52, as Britain finished eighth in 43.00.
There were, of course, some brilliant individual performances too. Top of the list was long jumper Miltiádis Tentóglou of Greece, as he leapt to a championship record and world lead of 8.46m (1.1) at the beginning of the session.
Italian hope Mattia Furlani could only manage third behind Tentóglou and Thobias Montler of Sweden with 8.07m (-0.3). Still, it was valuable points for the defending champions.
More points came for Italy in the men’s high jump as Matteo Sioli was runner-up with 2.27m behind winner Jan Štefela of Czechia’s 2.33m.
Anita Włodarczyk, the world hammer record-holder and three-time Olympic champion from Poland, showed she is still a force to be reckoned with at the age of 39 as she threw 73.34m to win her event.
Behind, Britain’s Anna Purchase excelled with 71.41m for third.
Daniel Stahl of Sweden is another throws veteran – albeit still only 32 – and the two-time world champion won the men’s discus in style with 68.36m as GB team captain Lawrence Okoye matched Purchase’s result by placing third with 65.83m.
German successes on Saturday included Caroline Joyeux, who won the women’s triple jump with 14.42m (-0.1).
If the Dutch dominated the relays, it was the Swiss who came out top in the sprint hurdles. Jason Joseph took the men’s event with 13.24 (-0.4) as Britain’s Tade Ojora was third in a season’s best of 13.36.
In the women’s 100m hurdles, Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland and Nadine Visser of the Netherlands both clocked 12.39 (2.2) but Kambundji was given the verdict after a well-timed dip finish.
In the 400m hurdles, Vít Müller of Czechia beat Alastair Chalmers of Britain in the men’s event – 48.46 to 48.64 – while Fatoumata Binta Diallo of Portugal took the women’s win with 54.77 as Britain’s Lina Nielsen was third with 54.90.
Elsewhere, the European Team Champs showed that it’s not just grassroots club meetings where we see athletes drafted into alien events “for a point”.
READ MORE: Day one coverage
The women’s 800m, for instance, saw pole vaulter Hanga Klekner swallow humble pie as she rumbled around the two laps in a painful 2:31.96 for Hungary.
At the sharp end, the event produced one of the races of the day, too, as Anaïs Bourgoin of France out-kicked Audrey Werro of Switzerland to win narrowly in 1:58.60.
The final session from the European Team Champs division one match in Madrid starts at 6pm local time on Sunday (June 29).
The event can be watched live via Eurovision Sport here.
The timetable and results for Madrid can be found here.
