The best European U18 performances of hurdlers Laura Frlickova and Michal Rada were among the most notable results at the European U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica from 18 to 21 July.

Slovakia’s Frlickova thrilled the home crowd on day one when she set a European U18 record in the 100m hurdles heats. With a time of 12.86 (2.0m/s), the 17-year-old shaved 0.12 off the previous European U18 record set by Cyrena Samba-Mayela in 2017. The performance moves Frlickova to second on the all-time U18 world list, behind only Kerrica Hill, the 2022 U20 world champion from Jamaica who set a time of 12.71.

Frlickova won her semi-final the following day in 13.18 (0.4m/s), before going on to claim Slovakia’s first ever gold medal at the U18 European Championships in 12.97 (0.2m/s), ahead of Poland’s Zofia Rojek (13.33) and France’s Auxane Kingue (13.37).

“These championships couldn’t have gone better,” Frlickova told European Athletics. “Winning on home soil is a dream for many athletes. I’m so happy that I achieved my goal and fulfilled my dream.”

The best European under-18 performances came at both ends of the championship, as Rada did in the 400m hurdles on the final day of the competition.

Czech Rada crossed the finish line in 49.42, beating the previous European U18 record by 0.96 and moving up to fifth on the world U18 all-time list. He was followed by fellow countryman Marek Vana (51.12) and Italy’s Tommaso Ardizzone (51.38).

Rada’s performance completed a unique double, as the previous race – the women’s 400m hurdles – was won by his twin sister Nina Radova. With a championship record of 58.00, Radova took gold ahead of Croatia’s Eva Barbaric (58.85) and France’s Lalie Pouzancre-Hoyer (59.07).

“Before my race, I was thinking about my sister,” Rada said. “When I heard she won, I stopped being stressed and focused on myself.

“My sister and I go to the same school, we train together, we do everything together. You can’t imagine how much we appreciate what we have achieved.”

The Czech Republic secured its third gold medal on the final day with Adela Holubova winning a spectacular 800m final with a best time of 2:04.23, ahead of Britain’s Shaikira King (2:04.29).

Nappi and Valensin help Italy top medal table

A 200m double by Diego Nappi and Elisa Valensin and a European U18 record by the medley relay team ensured Italy topped the medal table at the end of the four-day championships.

First Valensin won her final in 23.09 (1.0 m/s) and then Nappi won his final in 20.81 (0.7 m/s), both championship records.

These performances were achieved on the third day, during a session in which Stanislaw Strzelecki (46.50) and Anastazja Kus (51.89) also ran a Polish double in the 400 meters. Both athletes also set championship records.

Strzelecki returned the following day to anchor Poland to victory in the medley relay in a championship best of 1:51.62. That was the final race of the championship and followed a European U18 best set by Italy in the women’s medley relay, when the quartet combined for a time of 2:05.23. Kus was also back in action, anchoring Poland to silver in 2:05.54.

Barbic takes double medal for throws

Croatia’s Vita Barbic set another of the 24 championship records in Banska Bystrica when she threw a world U18 lead of 61.07m to win the javelin. It was the 16-year-old’s second medal of the day, having earlier thrown 49.50m to take bronze in the discus behind Germany’s Nadjela Wepiwe (51.61m) and Spain’s Andrea Njimi Tankeu Djeudji (50.01m).

Estonia’s Tristan Konso won the decathlon with a lead of 7549 points at the U18 World Championships. In his series he achieved a record time of 13.52 points in the 110m hurdles.

Finland’s Enni Virjonen also posted a world U18 lead of 6151 points to win the heptathlon. Her performance included a heptathlon championship best throw of 51.59m in the javelin, a personal best by almost 10 metres.

Other athletes who posted championship-best times during the four days of competition included Great Britain’s Lyla Belshaw, who won the 1500 metres in 4:13.01; Serbia’s Aldin Catovic, who won gold in the 3000 metres in 8:07.03 after taking silver in the 1500 metres behind Filip Toul; and Italy’s Serena Di Fabio, who posted a time of 21:50.80 to win the 5000 metres race walk.

Results