Montenegro’s Marija Vukovic, the 2022 European silver medallist, caused the upset of the night as she defeated the world bronze medallist and reigning European U23 champion, Angelina Topic at the 27th Filothei Women’s Gala, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, on Wednesday (3).
The 34-year-old Vukovic showed that she is not to be written off as she set a PB and national record of 1.98m on her first attempt, seemingly much to her own surprise, five years after first clearing 1.97m.
She took a moment after clearing the bar to sink into the mat and embrace the moment before re-composing herself to attempt two metres.
Topic, who is still just 20-years-old, skipped 1.98m in a tactical battle to take the win at 2.00m, but despite some close attempts neither woman was able to clear the final height.
The Serbian ended the night with a first-time clearance at 1.96m after needing two attempts at 1.88m and failing once at 1.94m before moving on up, to continue her outdoor season.
Slovenia’s Lia Apostolovski, the 2024 world indoor bronze medallist, took third with a season’s best of 1.88m after clearing 1.87m three times already this year.
Petrova bags Birmingham standard
It was Cuba’s Davisleydi Velazco who took the win in the triple jump with a leap of 14.58m in the opening round and 14.71m in the second before a series of fouls saw her retire from the competition after the fifth round.
However, Bulgaria’s Gabriela Petrova took second with 14.29m in her season opener, also crucially securing the standard for the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, which will be her fourth edition.
Sweden’s former world and European U20 champion in long and triple jump, Maja Askag, also secured the qualification standard, 14.20m, in the final round with 14.24m after jumping 14.19m in the fourth round.
Viktoriya Angelova, the 17-year-old Bulgarian, also jumped a PB of 13.25m to extend her lead in the 2026 European U18 list ahead of the European Athletics U18 Championships in Rieti from 16-19 July.
2016 and 2018 European champion Ekaterini Stefanidi of Greece, took the win in the pole vault with 4.40m season’s best on her return to this meeting since becoming a mother last year. This was also her best vault since becoming a mother as she builds towards the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August.
She took the win ahead of Greece’s Ariadni Adamopoulou and Spain’s Monica Clemente who also cleared 4.40m due to countback as Stefanidi had cleared all the prior heights on her first attempt.
Anastasia Boumpoulidi, Greece’s reigning European U18 champion, also took sixth with 4.20m having jumped 4.35m just last week.
In the long jump both Romania’s Alina Rotaru-Kottmann, a world bronze medallist, and Cyprus’ Filippa Fotopoulou jumped 6.61m, but the former secured the win on countback with a final round jump of 6.58m.
Through rounds one to five Rotaru-Kottmann improved her distance, starting with 6.31m and extending to her best of 6.61m in the fifth round.
While Fotopoulou fluctuated more with a couple fouls before jumping 6.61m in the last round, but it just wasn’t quite enough to take the win in Greece.
Though Evelyn Mitropoulou, who leads the European U20 list this year at just 18-years-old, took third in front of her home crowd with 6.31m while her seasons best stands at 6.45m.