Tentoglou keep bid for fourth Euro title on course, Nowicki misses out / Photo: © AFP
Tentoglou keep bid for fourth Euro title on course, Nowicki misses out
Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou kept his bid for a fourth European title on track at the opening day of the 2026 championships in Birmingham on Monday.
Double Olympic champion Tentoglou sailed into the final of the men's long jump with an effort of 8.26 metres at the Alexander Stadium that secured automatic qualification.
"Tomorrow I want to jump 8.50m, 8.60m and win," said the 28-year-old Greek.
"I'm good, so I should be able to. I have defended so many titles, so I don't feel the pressure, I feel excited."
Italian Francesco Ettore Inzoli, with a wind-assisted 8.34m, and Serbian Luka Boskovic (8.33) led the way into Tuesday's final.
The world outdoor and indoor champion from 2025, Italy's Mattia Furlani, missed out on qualification with one effort of 7.73m on his comeback from injury.
Like Tentoglou, Poland's Wojciech Nowicki is also a serial European gold medallist, having won the last three men's hammer throw titles, in Berlin in 2018, Munich in 2022 and Rome two years ago.
But Nowicki, Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021 and who also has five world medals to his name (two silver, three bronze), missed out on qualification for Tuesday's final.
He managed a best of 74.49m, which saw him finish 13th, 73cm off the 12th and final qualifier spot.
Nowicki's teammate Pawel Fajdek, the five-time world gold medallist who also won an European title in 2016, will ensure Polish interest in an event the country has dominated in recent times.
Czech Volodymyr Myslyvcuk (79.61m) and Hungary's Bence Halasz (79.58) led the qualifiers, the only two athletes comfortably beyond the automatic qualification standard of 78.00m.
The Netherlands' Jessica Schilder looked comfortable in qualifying for the women's shot put, the final of which will be held later Monday.
The two-time defending champion comes to Birmingham in fine form, having made history at the Shanghai Diamond League when she threw 21.09m to not only break the Diamond League record, but also became just the third woman in the world to break 21 metres since the turn of the millennium.
Schilder, seeking to become just the second woman to win the event three or more times, will face stiff competition from Germany's Yemisi Mabry, formerly Ogunleye.
Olympic champion Mabry topped qualifying with a best of 19.25m, while Schilder progressed with a first-round effort of 19.00m.
"I'm really not a huge fan of qualifying sessions in the morning if I'm completely honest. I really don't like it," said Schilder.
"The first step was to get through qualifying and that's done, so now it's about focusing on tonight."
Max Burgin and Ben Pattison delighted the British crowd by qualifying for the semi-finals of the men's 800m.
France's Yanis Meziane ran the fastest heat, in 1min 45.10sec, but teammate and defending champion Gabriel Tual only just snuck in.
Tual, the sixth‑fastest man and the second‑fastest European in the two-lap race, was the 13th and final qualifier in 1:46.33.
The evening session at the 18,000-capacity Alexander Stadium features five finals.
Golds will be up for grabs for both men and women in the shot put, while Amy Hunt will be vying for a British victory in the women's 100m.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is gunning for a seventh European title in the men's 5,000m, while there are also bragging rights to claim in the mixed 4x400m relay.
H.Baumann--BP
