Five of the seven Olympic champions celebrated at the European Indoor Athletics Championship

In a Euroindoor 2023 that gave away a handful of unexpected triumphs, the stellar performance was consummated in the pentathlon, a discipline in which the world record was broken not by one, but by two athletes: in addition to the Belgian Nafisatou Thaim, two-time Olympic and world champion in heptathlon and now three-time European champion with a score of 5,055 points, the Polish Adrianna Sulek, second with 5,014 units, also played her part in the Ataköy Arena.

In an enthralling finish in the 400 meters, Norway’s Karsten Warholm jumped headlong after crossing the finish line and winning the top prize with a time of 45.35, nine hundredths less than the Belgian pursuer Julien Watrin. In Tokyo, he was crowned in the hurdle race. At the end of the agonizing race, he confessed: “I’ve never had so much lactic acid, I had to remove the Viking gene.”

At 22 years old, Jakob Ingebrigtsen can count that he has already won 13 gold medals at the senior level, 11 of them in Europe. The leader in the 1,500 in the last Games repeated in Istanbul and also dominated the 3,000 race that does not enjoy Olympic status. In both, he defended his crown.

As expected, in the men’s triple jump the crown traveled to Portugal. The Cuban nationalized Pedro Pichardo, current Olympic and world champion, not only won his competition but broke the Portuguese national record in the standings and then again in the final, when he embedded his fingerprints in the 17.60 meters, one meter and two centimeters more than his Hellenic guard Nikolaos Andrikoloukos.

Speaking of Greek athletes, Miltiadis Tentoglou, who had a trademark annulled in the Torun competition in February for the unregulated use of a sneaker model, stretched his supremacy in the long jump. At 24, he can brag about having become the first in his discipline to win three consecutive gold medals at an indoor European Championship.

The big disappointment of the competition was played by the German multi-champion Malaika Mihambo, who failed to beat fourth place with three invalid attempts in the long jump. The unexpected winner was the British Jazmin Sawyers, with a jump of 7 meters. The other major frustration was provided by Samuele Ceccarelli to his compatriot and memorable winner in the 100 meters in Tokyo, Marcel Jacobs. The North American who represents Italy could not move his superiority to 60 meters and finished second with 6.58 seconds, two hundredths.

Other athletes who noted their name in bold in the 38th edition were the pole vaulter Wilma Murto, the first Finnish woman to climb to the top of the podium in this competition since 2000, with a national record included, the British midfielder Laura Muir, winner of the 1,500 meters and five golds in a Euro Indoor, and, finally, the local Tuğba Danışmaz, owner of the triple jump. Never before has a Turkish athlete celebrated in this event. Danışmaz gave an open smile to a nation that is still recovering from devastating earthquakes.