Eleven European athletes won gold medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, which ended on Sunday, setting themselves up for more success outdoors this summer at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships.
European athletes won gold medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships
A total of 16 European Athletics Member Federations won medals across the four-day programme in Birmingham, along with Authorised Neutral Athletes Danil Lysenko and Mariya Lasitskene from Russia who swept the high jump titles on the first day.
The only world record of the championships came on the last day – and in the last event on the track. The Polish quartet in the 4x400m stunned the USA, stopping the clock at 3:01.77 to break the four-year-old mark. The splits were: Karol Zalewski (45.73), Rafal Omelko (45.17), Lukasz Krawczuk (45.87) and Jakub Krzewina (45.00).
The unheralded Krzewina was the hero of the Polish team, running a magnificent anchor leg and overtaking his American rival in the final few metres.
Poland topped the medal table at the last two continental championships and they brought this form to the world stage, finishing third in the standings behind the USA and Ethiopia.
The day day before the Polish quartet brought the track event’s to a magnificent, their compatriot Adam Kszczot claimed his first global title to accompany his multiple European indoor and outdoor titles.
Hosts Great Britain actually picked up the most medals from the European nationals across the championships – finishing one place behind Poland in the medal table – with seven: two gold, one silver and four bronzes. Among them, Andrew Pozzi (60m hurdles) and Katarina Johnson-Thompson (pentathlon) collected their first global titles and double European indoor champion Laura Muir picked up a brace of medals in the 1500m and 3000m.
Three more European athletes set world-leading marks in Birmingham. France’s Kevin Mayer won the heptathlon title – by five points – with 6348 points, Hungary’s Anita Marton set a world-lead of 19.62m in the last round of the shot put and Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic extended her world-lead to 6.96m to win her first global title, and her tenth major senior medal since 2013.
Marton and Spanovic also created history for their respective nations, winning their first ever gold medals in IAAF World Indoor Championships history.
Gold medallists
Men
Pavel Maslak CZE (400m)
Adam Kszczot POL (800m)
Andrew Pozzi GBR (60m hurdles)
Danil Lysenko ANA (high jump)
Renaud Lavillenie FRA (pole vault)
Kevin Mayer FRA (heptathlon)
Poland (4x400m)
Women
Mariya Lasitskene ANA (high jump)
Ivana Spanovic SRB (long jump)
Anita Marton HUN (shot put)
Katarina Johnson-Thompson GBR (pentathlon)
Silver medallists
Men
Marcin Lewandowski POL (1500m)
David Storl GER (shot put)
Women
Laura Muir GBR (1500m)
Sifan Hassan NED (3000m)
Anzhelika Sidorova ANA (pole vault)
Ivona Dadic AUT (pentathlon)
Poland (4x400m)
Bronze medallists
Men
Saul Ordonez ESP (800m)
Aurel Manga FRA (60m hurdles)
Mateusz Przybylko GER (high jump)
Piotr Lisek POL (pole vault)
Nelson Evora POR (triple jump)
Tomas Stanek CZE (shot put)
Maicel Uibo EST (heptathlon)
Belgium (4x400m)
Women
Mujinga Kambundji SUI (60m)
Eilidh Doyle GBR (400m)
Shelayna Oskan-Clarke GBR (800m)
Sifan Hassan NED (1500m)
Laura Muir GBR (3000m)
Nadine Visser NED (60m hurdles)
Alessia Trost ITA (high jump)
Ekaterini Stefanidi GRE (pole vault)
Sosthene Moguenara-Taroum GER (long jump)
Ana Peleteiro (triple jump)
Great Britain (4x400m)
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