The Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships, held in the Italian capital’s historic Stadio Olimpico between 7-12 July, saw a torrent of outstanding performances on the recently installed MondotrackTM athletics track
No less than 15 championship records and more than 256 personal records were set, with and pole vault icon Mondo Duplantis went close to setting the first world record in a stadium at the European Athletics Championships since 1990.
After going clear at a championship record of 6.10m, Duplantis was the very last athlete in action after six days in Rome and the Swedish superstar ensured that an estimated 18,000 crowd remained focused on him even though the clock was ticking slowly towards midnight. He called for a world record height of 6.25m and, with his first attempt, he had daylight to spare but just nudged off the bar with his chest on the way down, with the crowd groaning audibly as Duplantis just fell short of setting his ninth world record.
Sadly, his remaining two attempts were not as close but, nevertheless it was an exciting climax to the championships and showed off just how good the athletics track installed by his namesake really was.
Here's what Mondo Duplantis, one of the many athletes who paid homage to the Mondo athletics track in the Olympic Stadium, said.
In total, championship records fell in nine men’s events and six women’s events, with three for each gender on the track.
Among the other men’s highlights were Belgium’s Alexander Doom clocking 44.15 to win the men’s 400m, the second fastest time ever by a European; Norway’s Karsten Warholm going under 47 seconds for the first time in European Championships history to win the 400m hurdles in 46.98; and his compatriot Jakob Ingebrigtsen taking a memorable 1500m and 5000m double in 3:31.95 and 13:20.11, setting a championship record in the shorter distance.
In the women’s events, championship records fell in both hurdles’ finals with France’s Cyrena Samba-Mayela and the Netherlands’ Femke Bol getting gold in the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles with world-leading times of 12.31 and 52.49 respectively.
Into the bargain, Italy’s Nadia Battocletti provided massive thrills for the home crowd with a long-distance 5000m and 10,000m double triumph in 14:35.29 and 30:51.32, setting a pair of national records. The 5000m win on the first night was also a championship record and set the scene for a superb championship for the host nation who took 11 gold medals and 24 medals overall.
The horizontal jumps – held on an innovative athletics track raised almost two meters above the stadium floor, along the opposite straight – were a perfect example of the Mondo team's design mastery.
Spain’s Jordan Diaz and Portugal’s reigning Olympic champion Pedro Pablo Picardo fought a magnificent duel in the triple jump which saw two men go over 18 metres in the same competition for only the second time in history. Pichardo produced national record of 18.04m in the second round only for Diaz to bound out to a massive championship record of 18.18m to move up to third on the world all-time list.
Greece’s reigning world and Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou took his third consecutive continental crown with his last two attempts both landing at a world- leading 8.65m.
Behind him, Italy’s prodigious teenage talent Mattia Furlani improved his own world U20 record to 8.38m on his opening jump.
In the women’s long jump, Germany’s Malaika Mihambo reached 7.22m for the longest jump in the world for almost five years, since she herself had won the 2019 world title in Doha with 7.30m – which was also held on a MondotrackTM track.
Overall, the following superlatives were achieved at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships.