Slider to show at home

Home

1286672 G06 W01

European Athletics Homepage

In the fifth episode of European Athletics' mini-documentary series&nbsp;My Story,&nbsp;Croatia's Sandra Perkovic narrates her path from throwing 35 metres to becoming the first athlete in any event to win five European titles in the same event.
Perkovic also remembers some of the key figures who have helped her along the way, including her mother who she described as her biggest supporter. "She taught me that every year I need to work like it's my last year and I need to give more than one hundred percent," said Perkovic who also recalled how she surprised her by coming to watch her win her fifth title at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships.
Initially a shot putter in her formative years in the sport, Perkovic soon found her niche in the discus. Her long-time coach Ivan Ivancic, who died in 2014 shortly after Perkovic won her third European title in Zurich, predicted that she would one day become an Olympic champion even when she was only throwing the discus 35 metres.
"Ivan is a very important person in my life...he showed me the way, he gave me his best advice, he gave me power, courage and respect for the others. I'm still using those gifts from him," said Perkovic.
The episode can be watched in its entirely in the video below.&nbsp;
The sixth episode featuring reigning world and European long jump champion Malaika Mihambo will be published later this month.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/25mfjGTaFKU" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
"I want to be remembered as the best female discus athlete ever." Sandra Perkovic

My Story Thumbnail Perkovic Nologo V4 Min

Perkovic: “I want to be remembered as the best female discus athlete ever”

Long jumper Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk and hammer thrower Myhaylo Kokhan have been voted Ukrainian Athletes of the Year for 2020.
Despite a turbulent year caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Bekh-Romanchuk and Kokhan both amassed notable summer campaigns. Bekh-Romanchuk won two events on the Diamond League circuit in the long jump and Kokhan, the reigning European U18 and U20 champion, improved his lifetime best in the hammer.
There were three stages to the voting. Fans, experts (the Ukrainian Athletic Association council) and media representatives all had their say, each accounting for one-third of the total vote.
"Back in June, we didn't expect anything special,&rdquo; Bekh-Romanchuk told the Ukrainian Athletic Association. &ldquo;It was said that Diamond Leagues were due to be staged but no one gave a one hundred percent guarantee. Therefore, all spring and half of the summer I trained in a light mode: I exercised once a day, purely to keep fit. It was not until late June-early July that the opportunity to compete became more apparent, but until we boarded the plane, there was no certainty.&rdquo;
Bekh-Romanchuk won five of her eight long jump competitions outdoors in 2020 which was highlighted by Diamond League victories in Stockholm (6.85m) and Doha (6.91m). Bekh-Romanchuk also went unbeaten through the indoor season and set an outright lifetime best of 6.96m at the Copernicus Cup in Torun, the host venue of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in March.
On the men&rsquo;s side, 19-year-old Kokhan topped the voting for the second year in succession. Despite being classified as an U20 in 2020, Kokhan still won five of his eight competitions with the senior implement and extended his lifetime best to 77.78m at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial in Szekesfehervar. He also won the Balkan senior title in Cluj-Napoca and crowned his illustrious junior career with gold at the Balkan U20 Championships.
&ldquo;Fortunately, I had the opportunity to compete in August and September: there were competitions in Ukraine and there were invitations to international tournaments. I also performed at the Balkan U20 and senior championships. But despite all the difficulties, I managed to improve my personal record in Sz&eacute;kesfeh&eacute;rv&aacute;r. We survived this year and are full of motivation for 2021,&rdquo; he said.

Gettyimages 1161204175 Min

Bekh-Romanchuk and Kokhan voted Ukrainian Athletes of the Year

In the fourth episode of European Athletics&rsquo; mini-documentary series My Story, Nafissatou Thiam reflects on her career all the way from winning a pot of jam for winning a cross country race in Belgium to winning the European heptathlon title in Berlin.&nbsp;
That gold medal secured the set of major heptathlon titles at the age of 23. Thiam is also one of only four women to surpass the 7000 points-barrier but the Belgian believes she will be at her peak at the Tokyo Olympics next year.
&ldquo;Tokyo was always the target,&rdquo; said Thiam. &ldquo;I know I can do something big because I&rsquo;m so much stronger now.&rdquo;
The full episode can be watched in full below and all previous episodes can be watched in their entirety on our YouTube channel.
The fifth episode of #MyStory will be published at 6pm on Thursday 7 January.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TDSB1V2kyPQ" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

My Story Thumbnail Thiam Nologo V2 Min

Thiam: “I know I can do something big in Tokyo because I’m so much stronger now”

World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver and Bronze Meetings

Doha 2019 World Athletics Championships silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh will look to extend her unbeaten start to the year when she competes in the 27th edition of the famous Banskobystrick&aacute; latka high jump meeting in Slovakia on Tuesday (2).
The Ukrainian teenager, who is still only 19 although she is now in her first year in the senior ranks, set a world U20 indoor record of 2.02m last year &ndash; which is also a Ukraine indoor record &ndash; and then went on to win in Banska Bystrica 11 days later.
This year, she has already equalled that height in Kyiv on 11 January and then notched up her eighth career clearance at two metres or higher when she went over 2.00m in the Italian city of Udine last Wednesday.
The women&rsquo;s competition in Banska Bystrica is a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting and also features Mahuchikh&rsquo;s compatriot and regular rival Yuliya Levchenko, who was third in this event last year.
Levchenko also took silver at the 2017 World Championships and she was the only high jumper in the world who managed to defeat Mahuchikh last year, albeit on three occasions. In direct head-to-head contests, Levchenko holds a 12-8 advantage over her younger rival in their 20 meetings since they first met in competition in 2018.
The women&rsquo;s competition in Banska Bystrica also includes 2014 world indoor champion Kamila Licwinko of Poland and the Italian duo of Elena Vallortigara and Alessia Trost, all of whom have jumped 2.00m or higher in their careers. The latter is also a former winner in Banska Bystrica, having triumphed in 2015 and Trost also finished second in 2019. Sadly, this year the competitions will be held without spectators owing to Covid restrictions but with several of the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold level meetings unable to accommodate a men's high jump competition &ndash; one of the scoring disciplines for this year &ndash; due to similar issues, the men&rsquo;s contest in Banska Bystrica has been promoted in status and will count towards the scoring in the global top tier series.
Italy&rsquo;s 2016 world indoor champion and reigning European indoor champion Gianmarco Tamberi &ndash; who won in Banska Bystrica just a few weeks before his Portland victory &ndash; arrives fresh from clearing a world- leading 2.32m in Ancona on Saturday.
Tamberi will take on the 2018 European outdoor silver medallist Maksim Nedasekau, who was the joint world leader in 2020 with 2.33m.
Other leading European jumpers in the men&rsquo;s field include Germany&rsquo;s 2018 European champion Mateusz Przybylko and Poland&rsquo;s 2017 European indoor champion Sylwester Bednarek.
Cuba&rsquo;s Luis Zayas and Jamal Wilson of The Bahamas will return to Banska Bystrica after their one-two finish last year. Both men cleared lifetime bests, and subsequent world leads, of 2.33m with Zayas winning on countback. The women's competitions starts at 1630 CET and the men get underway at 1900 CET and both contests will be streamed live via <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl py34i1dx gpro0wi8" tabindex="0" role="link" href="https://tveso.sk/bbl2021/?fbclid=IwAR27hIo6oPwtHpGi8bF8oksAJtexrkzQVKmDP_hLBZS9S6DGi1itYz4dy9o" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://tveso.sk/bbl2021/</a>

World leaders Mahuchikh and Tamberi head the Banska Bystrica high jump fields

FOTO: Pavol Uhrin | https://www.fotosport.sk

Bbl 2020 8844

For the second year in succession, Armand Duplantis launched his campaign with victory in Dusseldorf and the world record-holder also conquered the six metre-barrier again at the ISTAF Indoor in Dusseldorf, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver Meeting, on Sunday (31).
Duplantis sailed over a world leading height of 6.01m on his second attempt with significant room between his torso and the crossbar. He instructed the officials to raise the bar to a world record height of 6.19m but Duplantis ran through on his first attempt before drawing his afternoon to a close.
But regardless, Duplantis was extremely pleased to begin his season in such auspicious form. The 21-year-old extended his winning streak to 17 competitions in Dusseldorf and he will be looking to ameliorate that figure at the Perche Elite Tour in Rouen on Saturday.
&ldquo;I don't know what it is with Germany and me, but all the competitions here are really special for me and I'm always able to jump extremely high,&rdquo; commented Duplantis who famously cleared 6.05m to win the 2018 European title at the age of 18.
On today's performance, he said: &ldquo;6.01m today was awesome. It felt really good to be back competing. Of course I felt a little rusty and I need to work on the consistency of my run. But I'm more than happy with the 6.01m and the world lead and I can feel that things are going in the right direction.&rdquo;
The standard of pole vaulting was of a very high calibre behind Duplantis. Germany's Torben Blech equalled his indoor lifetime best of 5.72m before clearing outright lifetime bests at 5.81m and 5.86m to finish second ahead of two-time world champion Sam Kendricks from the United States with 5.81m.
And continuing the theme of Dutch success this weekend, Menno Vloon also cleared a national indoor record of 5.81m to finish fourth behind Kendricks on countback.
In the women&rsquo;s long jump, reigning world and European champion Malaika Mihambo took the plaudits from Sweden&rsquo;s Khaddi Sagnia but only by virtue of having a superior second best jump.
Both Mihambo and Sagnia jumped 6.74m but the German backed that up with 6.73m in the fifth round to claim sole ownership of the victory. 
Competing off a full approach for the first time in almost a year, Mihambo also had a marginal foul in the sixth round which looked in the region of the seven metre-line.
&ldquo;My coach took a picture that showed the jump went far beyond seven metres. This makes me confident for the competitions to come,&rdquo; said Mihambo.
Reigning world and European indoor champion Ivana Spanovic from Serbia was third with 6.61m in her first competition since June.
Fresh from a victory in Karlsruhe on Friday evening, Dina Asher-Smith concluded her whistestop German tour with another victory in the 60m. The treble European champion wasn't in quite such imperious form this afternoon but she still withheld the challenge of Switzerland's Ajla Del Ponte in the adjacent lane to win in 7.12 ahead of the rapidly improving Swiss who was rewarded with a lifetime best of 7.16.
European indoor champion Nadine Visser from the Netherlands won a competitive 60m hurdles in 8.00 by one-hundredth from former European indoor and outdoor champion Alina Talay from Belarus. Visser's compatriot Zoe Sedney, 18, set a big lifetime best of 8.04 to finish third.
The men's 60m hurdles was even closer between Poland's Damian Czykier and Aaron Mallett from the United States. Both of them were timed at 7.64 with the Pole given the nod to fully make amends for his disqualification in Karlsruhe on Friday evening due to a false start.

Duplantis scales 6.01m on his season's debut in Dusseldorf

Gettyimages 1266331407 Min

In spite of the ongoing pandemic, a busy and exciting weekend of athletics is due to unfold across Europe with reigning world and European champions in action on the path to the Toruń 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships from 4-7 March.
The weekend includes World Athletics Indoor Tour events in Karlsruhe and D&uuml;sseldorf as well as another exciting pole vault competition in Tourcoing, plus standout domestic action across the continent.
Here are some of the expected highlights over the next three days.
Season&rsquo;s debut for Duplantis in Dusseldorf
World Athlete of the Year Armand Duplantis will open his indoor season on Sunday (31) at the inaugural edition of the ISTAF Indoor in Dusseldorf.
Duplantis launched his impeccable 2020 campaign in Dusseldorf with a 6.00m clearance before giving immediate notice of his world record-breaking capabilities with three close attempts at 6.17m, a height he would conquer in his next competition in Torun.
A different venue awaits Duplantis on Sunday with the ISTAF Indoor taking place at the ISS-Dome. In a rematch of the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Duplantis faces Sam Kendricks, the last vaulter to defeat Duplantis, and perennial world and European medallist Piotr Lisek from Poland.
<a href="https://www.sportschau.de/weitere/leichtathletik/videostream-livestream---istaf-indoor-in-duesseldorf-100.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live streaming</a>
Mihambo and Spanovic go head-to-head in Dusseldorf
The women&rsquo;s long jump will be another focal point at the ISTAF Indoor in Dusseldorf on Sunday as Germany&rsquo;s Malaika Mihambo and Serbia&rsquo;s Ivana Spanovic are due to extend their rivalry.
Between them, Mihambo and Spanovic have won every major European indoor and outdoor accolade since 2015 and both of them also have global honours to their credit. Mihambo is the reigning world outdoor champion while Spanovic finally landed her first global title at the World Indoor Championships in 2018.
In terms of current form, Spanovic hasn&rsquo;t competed since early June due to injury. Mihambo has already competed this year, jumping 6.52m earlier this month in Frankfurt albeit off an abbreviated run-up.
<a href="https://www.sportschau.de/weitere/leichtathletik/videostream-livestream---istaf-indoor-in-duesseldorf-100.html">Live streaming</a>
Asher-Smith to lace up spikes in Karlsruhe and Dusseldorf&nbsp;
Dina Asher-Smith seldom competes indoors but the reigning world and European 200m champion will be embarking on a busy weekend of racing after a low-key outdoor season.
In her first indoor campaign in three years, Asher-Smith will be making her season&rsquo;s debut in the 60m at the Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe on Friday evening, two days before competing in the short sprint at the ISTAF Indoor in Dusseldorf.&nbsp;
In both competitions, Asher-Smith will face the vastly improving Swiss sprinter Ajla Del Ponte who won 14 of her 16 100m races last summer.
<a href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-tour/news/how-to-watch-world-athletics-indoor-tour-meet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live streaming</a>
Stefanidi and Lavillenie command the spotlight in Tourcoing
Ekaterini Stefanidi&rsquo;s road to her title defence at the Olympic Games in Tokyo begins in Tourcoing where she faces Greek teammate Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou and European indoor and outdoor medallist Holly Bradshaw at the Perche En Or on Sunday.
The men&rsquo;s line-up is headed by a rejuvenated Renaud Lavillenie who cleared an auspicious 5.92m in Bordeaux earlier this month to match his best ever season&rsquo;s opener.
A strong US contingent awaits the Frenchman in Tourcoing, including Chris Nilsen, Jacob Wooten and Matt Ludwig. Reigning European indoor champion Pawel Wojciechowski from Poland and British record-holder Harry Coppell are also due to compete.
<a href="https://www.perche-en-or.fr/directlive/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live streaming</a>
Tamberi to open his campaign in Ancona
The charismatic Gianmarco Tamberi will begin his indoor season with a domestic outing in Ancona on Saturday (30), three days before he faces a typically high calibre line-up in the famous high jump meeting in Banska Bystrica.
Tamberi made a long-awaited and highly popular return to the podium at the 2019 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow and the Italian is planning to defend his title in Torun from 4-7 March.
Bol and Klaver bound for Vienna
Femke Bol and Lieke Klaver were two of the breakthrough performers of the 2020 summer campaign in the 400m hurdles and 400m flat respectively and the emerging Dutch duo will gauge their early season form in Vienna on Saturday (30).
The training partners have entered both the 200m and 400m in the Austrian capital. For posterity the world leads currently stand at 22.90 and 51.76 respectively.
<a href="https://streamster.tv/event/leichtathletik/indoor-track-field-vienna-2021/?fbclid=IwAR1MaZrdJFib7qwEqoLMLlygSoDCNxncTaWKfKEFCWEWTQpQzSwwHuPw2Hw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Live streaming</a>
Sprunger to begin farewell season in Magglingen
Reigning European 400m hurdles champion Lea Sprunger has confirmed this will be her last season and she will be dearly hoping to upgrade her fourth-place finish from the 2019 World Championships in Doha at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.
Sprunger will compete for the first time this season at home in Magglingen this weekend where she has entered the 60m, 200m and 400m.

Who and where? Seven events to follow across Europe this weekend

TORUN, POLAND - FEBRUARY 08: Armand Duplantis of Sweden sets new indoor pole vault world record of 6.17m during Copernicus Cup on February 8, 2020 in Torun, Poland. (Photo by Rafal Oleksiewicz/PressFocus/MB Media/Getty Images)

Gettyimages 1199556765

Almost five years had passed since Renaud Lavillenie last scaled the six metre-barrier but the Frenchman delivered a sumptuous display on home soil at the first edition of the Perche En Or in Tourcoing on Sunday (31) evening.
Less than three hours after Armand Duplantis opened his season with a 6.01m clearance in Dusseldorf, Lavillenie catapulted himself over 6.02m in Tourcoing - only his fourth vault of the competition - to regain the world lead and venture into six metre territory for the first time since 2016.
Lavillenie might be approaching his 35th birthday but the home favourite has rekindled some of his very best form on the road to the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships where he is targeting his fifth gold medal.
His performance was also a demonstration in economy. He cleared 5.63m, 5.80m, 5.93m and 6.02m all on his first attempts before taking one attempt at a world record of 6.20m, one centimetre higher than the world record of 6.19m that Duplantis attempted earlier in the afternoon.
Lavillenie also preserved his unbeaten start to the season having prevailed earlier in the month in Bordeaux with 5.92m, his joint highest season's opener, and on Friday evening in Karslruhe with 5.95m.
&ldquo;I jumped two days ago, there was fatigue. We are still in January, we have to take the time, there are still great competitions to come. We are all struggling with the pandemic right now. It's a huge chance to be able to jump as a professional athlete and it is good for everyone's morale,&rdquo; said Lavillenie as quoted by L&rsquo;Equipe.
Lavillenie and Duplantis will cross paths for the first time this year on Saturday evening at the Perche Elite Tour in Rouen.
In the women's competition, reigning Olympic and European champion Ekaterini Stefanidi from Greece cleared 4.61m in her first significant competition since the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.
Femke Pluim set the fifth Dutch record of the weekend, improving her national indoor record to 4.52m to finish second.
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zAfWh81k--I" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
Tamberi clears a world lead of 2.32m in Ancona
Gianmarco Tamberi also showed glimpses of his very best form on his season&rsquo;s debut in Ancona on Saturday (30) evening.
The reigning European indoor champion didn&rsquo;t progress through the heights with quite the same consummate ease as Lavillenie but Tamberi showed his competitive mettle with third-time clearances at 2.22m, 2.28m and 2.32m, a world leading height and his best start to a season in five years.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Today I jumped for my grandfather who passed away in November, it was the first competition without him and I owed it to him,&rdquo; Tamberi told FIDAL after the competition.
&ldquo;I started crying since I heard my grandmother Graziella on the phone at lunchtime, when she reminded me that grandfather Marcello never missed a single jump of mine. And even during a run-up to 2.32m a few tears came out.&rdquo;
Tamberi will be in action again tomorrow evening at the famous Banska Bystrica high jump meeting in Slovakia.
Elsewhere around Europe&hellip;
Reigning European indoor champion Lea Sprunger had a busy start to her season on home soil in Magglingen this weekend.
The 30-year-old, who has already announced that she will be retiring at the end of the season, won the 200m in 23.52 and 400m in 52.31 and also clocked 7.50 in the 60m.
European U20 decathlon champion Simon Ehammer displayed his excellent credentials in individual events once again by winning the 60m hurdles in 7.80m and the long jump with 7.72m.&nbsp;
Silvan Wicki clocked 6.61 in the 60m and Angelica Moser also cleared 4.60m in the pole vault.
Marcin Lewandowski is aiming for a fourth successive European indoor title in Torun next month and the Pole began his season on Saturday in the very city which will be staging the biennial continental event next month.
The multiple global and European 800m and 1500m medallist stepped up in distance to win the 3000m in Torun in 7:51.69, the second fastest time in history indoors by a Pole.
Anna Kielbasinska, who was part of Poland&rsquo;s gold medal-winning team in the 4x400m at the 2019 European Indoor Championships, dropped down in distance to win the 60m in a lifetime best of 7.21.
By contrast, former world U20 800m bronze medallist Andreas Almgren stepped up in distance to break his Swedish indoor 3000m record with 7:41.6 in Sollentuna on Saturday.
&ldquo;It feels very good, I knew I was in very good shape but not that I would run this fast. All the workouts I have done this winter have been better than the last indoor season when I ran the record,&rdquo; he said.
At the Ukrainian Indoor Team Championships in Sumy, Iryna Herashchenko cleared 1.92m in the high jump and European 400m hurdles silver medallist Hanna Ryzhykova won the 400m flat in 52.97.
Jessica-Bianca Wessolly set a European-leading 200m of 23.07 in Mannheim on Saturday and also won the 60m in 7.41.
Multiple Slovenian champion Maja Mihalinec also opened her season with a fast 7.23 on home soil in Novo Mesto on Sunday, missing her lifetime best by just 0.02.

Gettyimages 1299405690 Min (1)

Vintage Lavillenie clears 6.02m in Tourcoing; Tamberi clears 2.32m in Ancona

European Athletics Indoor Championships

The track being readied for the forthcoming European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland which will be held between 5-7 March, has seen major championship action before but not where it is currently installed.
European Athletics&rsquo; Partner Mondo originally installed its <a href="https://www.mondoworldwide.com/emea/en/sport/track-and-field/">Sportflex Super X 720 K39</a> track in the Ergo Arena in Sopot, 190 kilometres away, ahead of the 2014 World Athletics Indoor Championships which were to be staged there.
As that venue was originally designed as an ice hockey stadium the original challenge was how to install a championship-standard track with excellent stability as well as minimal noise and vibration into such a facility but Mondo engineers &ndash; working with their local partners Tamex &ndash; realised that the solution was to build a&nbsp;three metre-high substructure and platform onto which the track itself was then laid.
The modular system &ndash; with all the track&rsquo;s pieces to be disassembled and assembled through a quick coupling system &ndash; employed by Mondo meant that the track was able to be moved to the Arena Torun barely seven weeks after those championships and it has since regularly staged major domestic events as the country&rsquo;s only World Athletics Certified Indoor Track, including the annual Copernicus Cup, which is a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting and whose latest edition will take place on 17 February.
Head of the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships LOC Krzysztof Wolsztynski anticipates a plethora of outstanding performances on the track in five weeks&rsquo; time at what will be the global highlight of the indoor season and arguably the most important championship in the world during the first half of 2021.
"The&nbsp;European Athletics Indoor Championships&nbsp;won&rsquo;t be the first international event in Torun. A lot of top athletes ask to take part in the indoor events (in Torun) because they know they can run really fast on this Mondo track and improve their personal bests. I hope the athletes will come to Torun well prepared and that they will achieve great results on the track and in the technical competitions.
&ldquo;Relocating the Mondo track from Sopot to Torun in 2014 gave us extra visibility.&nbsp;Torun has become a famous city on the world map of indoor athletics. This means we can organise international meets and athletes are eager to take part in Torun. This success has contributed to our expansion and we are also delighted to participate in the World Athletics Indoor Tour,&rdquo; commented Wolsztynski.
One man eager to return to Torun is Swedish pole vaulting superstar Armand Duplantis, who has already committed to competing at the European Athletics Indoor Championships as part of a busy indoor season.
In 2020, before the global turmoil delivered by the coronavirus pandemic, Duplantis set a world record&nbsp;of 6.17m at the Copernicus Cup indoor meeting, a record that was broken a few weeks later by Duplantis himself in Glasgow (on a surface also provided by Mondo) with 6.18m.
The hexagonal air cells that make up the Sportflex Super X surface guarantee a highly-rated combination of&nbsp;shock absorption, energy storage&nbsp;and&nbsp;then return, which can then translate into real benefits for the athletes themselves. The surface has been shown to reduce athletes&rsquo; fatigue and also the risk of injury during training and competitions.
"We have a lot of tracks with Mond surfaces all over Poland... and I can say that many athletes prefer these surfaces. We won six gold medals in Glasgow (at the last European Athletics Indoor Championships, so Polish athletes are happy to be competing on a Mondo track at home in Torun for the European indoors in 2021," commented the Polish athletics federation&rsquo;s Director of High Performance Krzysztof Kęcki.

Mondo's Torun track gets a second lease of life

Copernicus 08022020 Fotpawelskraba 01.jpg Lower

Great Britain&rsquo;s Keely Hodgkinson was a late entrant into the Vienna Indoor Track &amp; Field meeting on Saturday (30) and the 18-year-old was fully vindicated in her decision to make a last minute dash to the Austrian capital.&nbsp;
Hodgkinson was already familiar with the Dusika Stadium after setting a European indoor U20 record of 2:01.16 last year but the teenager not only improved that mark in her last year as a junior but also decimated the world indoor U20 record with 1:59.03 in her first race of the season.
This was Hodgkinson&rsquo;s first ever sub-two minute clocking and the reigning European U18 champion also became the first junior in history to eclipse the two minute-barrier in the 800m indoors. The previous world indoor U20 record stood to Ethiopia&rsquo;s Meskerem Legesse at 2:01.03.
Hodgkinson&rsquo;s time was also comfortably inside the Olympic 800m qualifying mark of 1:59.50. And if she chooses to do so, she can also compete at both the World and European U20 Championships this summer.
Bol and Klaver rewrite the Dutch indoor record books
Fresh from a warm weather training stint in South Africa, Femke Bol from the Netherlands opened her racing season in scintillating form.
It was an equally excellent meeting for her teammate and training partner Lieke Klaver. Between them, they broke three national indoor records over the course of the programme.
Prior to this morning, the Dutch indoor 400m record had stood at 51.82 since 1998 but that mark was subsequently improved twice within ten minutes. Klaver initially took the record down to 51.48 only for Bol to slash another half-a-second from that mark with another world leading 50.96 in the following race.
Bol&rsquo;s time was an outright lifetime best and the fastest time by a European since fellow 400m hurdles specialist Perri Shakes-Drayton clocked 50.85 to win the 2013 European Indoor Championships.&nbsp;
And while Klaver&rsquo;s 51.48 was hastily erased from the record books by her 20-year-old teammate, the Dutchwoman did claim ownership of the long-standing national indoor 200m record, the distance at which she topped the European outdoor list in 2020.
In her second race of the day, Klaver powered around one lap of the track in 23.17 to erase the mark of 23.34 which had been held by Els Vader since 1988. Bol also clocked an indoor lifetime best of 23.52 in a separate race.
Another long-standing national record was smashed in the men's 1500m. Hungary's Istvan Szogi set a world lead of 3:37.55 to improve the national indoor record of 3:39.25 which dated back to 1985.

Gettyimages 993516468 Min

Hodgkinson shatters world indoor U20 800m record with 1:59.03 in Vienna

&nbsp;
Despite an enforced absence from the competition calendar during 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dynamic New Athletics returned to the spotlight in Spain on Saturday (30).
The national indoor inter-clubs meeting in Valencia was the first time the DNA had taken place undercover, with the Spanish athletics federation demonstrating the flexibility of the format by adapting the timetable to embrace the principal concepts of DNA.
<ul>
<li>A team-based competition combining male and female athletes.</li>
<li>A short and compact setting, both in terms of venue and time.</li>
<li>An easy-to-understand format which was exciting and unpredictable right the way through to the end of the very last event.</li>
<li>A linear competition, which means just one event happening at a time.</li>
<li>Head-to-head competition prioritised over sheer performance i.e. time, height and distance.</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;The Playas de Castell&oacute;n club &ndash; one of Spain&rsquo;s leading clubs in recent years &ndash; ran out winners in the senior contest and clinched their victory in the Luis Puig Velodrome &ndash; the venue for the 1998 European Athletics Championships and the World Athletics Indoor Championships a decade later &ndash; after a dominating performance in the final event, The Hunt.
After going into The Hunt, a mixed medley relay, with a lead of just four points &ndash; which translated into an advantage of 1.33 seconds &ndash; Playas finished more than three seconds ahead of their nearest rivals, thanks in no small part to a devasting four laps of the track by their locally-based Burundi international Eric Nzikwinkunda.
&ldquo;Wow, what an exciting new format. I had lots of fun. I think we all did. The new rules, especially in the field events, are a great innovation,&rdquo; commented the Playas captain Carmen Ramos, the Spanish international heptathlete giving DNA her team&rsquo;s seal of approval after receiving a winner&rsquo;s cheque for &euro;1500.
Both the senior and U18 competitions saw a mix of events that combined three traditional track races &ndash; men&rsquo;s 60m, women&rsquo;s 400m and 60m hurdles in the senior competition &ndash; with three field events held under special DNA head-to-head rules which first saw the light of day at the 2019 European Games in Minsk: the men&rsquo;s long jump and shot put, and women&rsquo;s high jump.
The six events delivered points for positions and, in turn, this total and the difference between the six participating teams was transformed into a time advantage for The Hunt, which in Valencia was a women&rsquo;s 1000m followed by a men&rsquo;s 800m, women&rsquo;s 600m and finally a men&rsquo;s 400m.
Given the prevailing situation with Covid in Spain, the Valencia competition was held under the strictest sanitary conditions, sadly without any spectators and with all athletes and other personal taking quick Covid antigen tests before being allowed the enter the main part of the stadium.&nbsp;
The use of masks was mandatory throughout the day except when competing and there were extended protocols for cleaning, disinfection and hygiene with the competition equipment and the arena as a whole.
Nevertheless, the competition was a resounding success and showed that DNA can be adapted to all environments, and surmount even the challenges of the current pandemic.
&ldquo;I saw how the competition worked in Minsk and I was very enthusiastic about bringing it to Spain and could see the possibilities of how it could work indoors. Even in this situation, we had an exciting competition and I can&rsquo;t wait for us to stage DNA competitions when we can have spectators int he stadium and watch the energy levels rise,&rdquo; commented the Spanish athletics federation President and European Athletics Council member Raul Chapado.
Earlier on Saturday, Alcampo Scorpio 71 from Zaragoza won a mixed U20/U18/U16 competition using the same format. Starting The Hunt just five points in front of Playas &ndash; 1.66 seconds &ndash; the Scopio 71 medley relay quartet never gave their opponents a chance of reeling them in and ran out winners by more than six seconds.
This competition showed off the talents of some of Spain&rsquo;s top teenagers, several of whom can look forward to competing at the European Athletics U18 and U20 Championships this summer, but a special mention should be made of one athlete who might have to wait a few years before competing on the international stage, 13-year-old Anastasia Lopez who sped to a 60m win in a personal best 7.83 and beat sprinters up to two years older than herself.
Full results here <a href="https://resultados.rfea.es/2021/pistacubierta/pc_DNAabsoluto.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(senior)</a> &amp; <a href="https://resultados.rfea.es/2021/pistacubierta/pc_DNApromocion.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">(U20/U18/U16)</a>

 2mi5284 Resultado

DNA makes its indoor debut in Valencia

The European Athletics High Performance Webinar series has been extended through until mid-June to ensure learning can continue and ideas can still be shared in spite of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The series recommences on Friday 8 January with a lecture entitled &lsquo;Rebuilding stronger - lessons learned from the pandemic&rsquo; which will be given by Swiss international hammer thrower Martin Bingisser.
This is one of three one hour-long lectures which will be given in January, and one of 13 which are due to take place across the next six months. To register for the High Performance Webinar series, please click on <a href="https://register.event-works.com/ea/ea_HPWS_2021/e/cp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this link</a> and follow the instructions.
The High Performance Webinar series is aimed predominantly at coaches, sport scientists and other medical staff such as doctors and physios as well as athletes. The full schedule can be found <a href="https://twitter.com/hannengland/status/1346892199720574977" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;
Further details on the European Athletics High Performance Webinar series can be obtained from the European Athletics Development Department at development@european-athletics.org.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Dsc 8401 Min 2

European Athletics High Performance Webinar series to recommence on Friday

The track for the World Athletics Indoor Championships Barcelona 1995, provided by the European Athletics Preferred Supplier Mondo, is being installed once again in the Catalan City&rsquo;s famous Palau Sant Jordi.
Work started on Monday this week (28) to re-install the track after an absence of nearly 25 years, which was noted at the time back in the mid-1990s for its innovative red, yellow and blue colour scheme.
The first indoor athletics competition at the Palau Sant Jordi for more than 25 years is scheduled for weekend of 16 and 17 January.
After the 1995 World Athletics Indoor Championships, the hydraulic banked track, which was among the first in Europe, was moved about 30 kilometres to nearby Vilafranca del Penedes where it staged more than 10 indoor meetings a year between 1996 to 2010 including a number of national championships.
The track has been based in the neighbouring city of Sabadell for the last decade but with the Sant Oleguer indoor arena there being used as a temporary hospital during the coronavirus pandemic, an agreement was reached recently between the Barcelona City Council and the Catalan Athletics Federation for the much-travelled track to return to where is first saw top class competition.
The Palau Sant Jordi was the main indoor arena during the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, where is staged the artistic gymnastics competitions as well as volleyball and handball matches. In more recent times, the Palau has become one of Spain&rsquo;s major venues for large scale concerts but with such events currently not taking place due to the pandemic, it was time for the six-lane track (with an eight-lane straight in the middle) to &lsquo;come home&rsquo; to ensure the region can continue to stage international indoor meetings like those that have taken place in Sabadell on the same track in recent years.
The hydraulic track, <a href="https://www.mondoworldwide.com/emea/en/sport/track-and-field/">which Mondo developed and introduced to the market in 1988, </a>features two curved sections that can be banked to enable runners to maintain their top speeds going into turns. The hydraulic system can raise and lower the running surface in a just a few minutes.
Europe provided 13 of the 27 winners in Barcelona in 1995 &ndash; the women&rsquo;s pole vault wasn&rsquo;t yet contested at major international championships &ndash; with the highlight being the women&rsquo;s triple jump world indoor record of 15.03m by Russia&rsquo;s Yolanda Chen, the first women to break the 15-metre barrier indoors.
Other notable performances included Ukraine&rsquo;s Sergey Bubka adding to his incredible list of major international titles with his fourth world indoor pole vault gold medal, clearing 5.90m, and Germany&rsquo;s Alina Astafei winning the high jump title with 2.01m and Romanian teenager Gabriela Szabo winning her first major international senior title &ndash; with many more to come in an illustrious career &ndash; when she kicked to victory off the final turn of the 3000m to win in 8:54.50.
Mondo have provided the competition surface for 13 of the 17 World Athletics Indoor Championships to date as well as 13 of the last 16 European Athletics Indoor Championships since 1988. They will also be providing the tracks for the next two events as well: in Torun, Poland on 5-7 March 2021 and Istanbul, Turkey on 2-5 March 2023.

1994:  Yolanda Chen prepares to compete in a triple jump event during the IAAF Mobil Stockholm Grand Prix in Stockholm, Sweden. Mandatory Credit: Gray Mortimore  /Allsport

Gettyimages 1794028

Mondo's 1995 world indoor championships track finally returns home

SPAR is involved in sponsoring many sporting activities through the individual efforts of independent retailers, wholesalers and the combined sponsorship of European Athletics on an international basis. Internationally, SPAR has been the principal sponsor of European Athletics since 1996, becoming synonymous with the sport in this period. Athletics is a sport where personal endeavour is combined with team participation to achieve success. Honour and pride in winning the discipline remain athletes’ main incentive. SPAR identifies with this principle which is reflective of our highly successful retailers who continue to develop the brand through the formats and ensure that consumers enjoy shopping at SPAR. The European Athletics events of which SPAR is principal sponsor comprise three elements - indoor/outdoor and cross-country - spanning the entire year of competition. SPAR works with the national partner in each country to develop maximum awareness of the sponsorship and the critical link with individual athletes who are also customers of independent retailers. SPAR is proud to be involved with European Athletics, an organisation which strives to bring passion and enthusiasm for their sport to viewers, spectators and participants.

Spar

Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland started its long-term partnership with European Athletics in 2008. The highlight of the partnership will be the European Athletics Championships 2014 in Zurich, with the 2012 Helsinki championships inbetween. Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland is a cheese of very high quality, which has been hand-made for many centuries. It is a natural product without any additives. Le Gruyère AOP Switzerland is looking forward to welcoming you soon at a European Athletics event and to offer you a taste of our magnificent cheese.

Le Gruyere

Toyo Tires

Liqui Moly

Liqui Moli

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has been the broadcast partner of European Athletics since 1981. For more than 30 years, the outstanding collaboration between both organisations has always been focused on developing European Athletics into a more attractive product for television, spectators and athletes. Through its operational department Eurovision, the EBU is continuously working to promote Athletics by offering the most comprehensive coverage of European Athletics events all over Europe.

Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 110,000 employees and annual revenue of € 12 billion. European number one in cybersecurity, cloud and high performance computing, the group provides tailored end-to-end solutions for all industries in 73 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization services and products, Atos is committed to a secure and decarbonized digital environment for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.

Atos is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games. Atos is also the Timing-Scoring, Results and Operations provider of European Athletics events since 2017, and European Athletics Official Digital Partner for their new digital platform (web and mobile).

 

Atos

Mondo

Rs 2

Getty Images is the world's leading creator and distributor of visual content – with award winning editorial photographers and videographers covering hundreds of Sports, Entertainment, and News events daily. Digital asset management and distribution services optimize efficiency and content syndication for hundreds of media partners and rights holders.

Last News

Vintage Lavillenie clears 6.02m in Tourcoing; Tamberi clears 2.32m in Ancona

Mondo's Torun track gets a second lease of life

Hodgkinson shatters world indoor U20 800m record with 1:59.03 in Vienna

Competitions

Run Clean

Sponsors

Official Partners

Broadcast Partner

Official Digital Partner

Preferred Supplier

Supporting Hotel

Official Photographic Agency