By Yavuz YAVUZ
Medal action was underway in Apeldoorn on day 2, with six gold medals going to six different countries in one night.
As the Dutch swayed with their mixed team clinched gold medal in the first evet mixed 4x400 European final indoors, their next big hope was Nadine Visser, who kept on firing personal bests over the last year, and was set to dominate the field in the absence of former world champion Cyréna Samba-Mayela. However, second night of 2025 European Indoors in Apeldoorn produced the second fastest women’s 60m hurdles race ever, as Ditaji Kambundji emerged victorious with a scintillating 7.67, taking over the European record from Susanna Kallur whose best mark remained on top for around 17 years. Kambundji, European silver-medallist of 100m hurdles last year in Rome, finally obtained her first continental senior title.
Nadine Visser followed suit with a Dutch record of 7.72, and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska got her hands on the bronze medal, edging Sarah Lavin who had her best indoor result to date by coming in fourth.
On the men’s side, it was Poland’s time to shine as Jakub Szymanski, former world junior bronze-medallist, clocked 7.43 to overtake French title contenders, Wilhem Belocian and Just Kwaou-Mathey.
In women’s 1500m Agathe Guillemot, European outdoor bronze-medallist in Rome, obtained the gold medal in 4:07.23, bringing France the first ever European title in the event, and second ever medal with Hind Dehiba winning bronze twenty years ago. Salome Alfonso and Revee Walcott-Nolan, last year’s sixth-place finisher in World Indoors, followed her steps on the podium. Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell, Olympic bronze-medallist last year in Paris, led the pack to the last 100 metres but lost tempo, and a medal spot.
In men’s race, world record holder Jakob Ingebrigtsen won his sixth European Indoor title comfortably in 3:36.56. Azedine Habz came in second, and Isaac Nader brought Portugal a second indoor 1500m medal on the same night with bronze. The two won Portugal’s first track medals in European Indoors in 12 years.
On the field, two finals were contested. In women’s triple jump Spain’s Ana Peleteiro leapt over 14-meter line twice, and 14.37 in her fifth attempt sealed the gold medal. Senni Salminen struggled with four faults, but catapulted herself to a medal position in her sixth attempt with 13.99. Diana Ana Maria Ion of Romania produced the upset of the night with a jump of 14.31 meters in her sixth attempt, and won silver. Tuğba Danışmaz, the defending champion who looked to be out of form in the run up to the event but produced a 14-meter jump in the qualifications foot-faulted five times and finished fifth with a mark of 13.79 that came in her first attempt.
In men’s long jump, which saw defending champion Miltiadis Tentoglou withdraw due to illness, gold medal was all but sealed for Olympic bronze-medallist Mattia Furlani. The Italian landed beyond the 8-meter mark twice and led the group to the final round with 8.12. But Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Saraboyukov, Balkan Indoor champion and outdoor silver-medallist, leapt to a fantastic 8.13 in his last attempt and clinched gold by edging Furlani. This was the first time Bulgaria won gold in this event in 25 years since Petar Dachev had the honours in Ghent.
