BIRMINGHAM – Italy celebrates its first ever triumph in the women's triple jump at the European Championships. On the Birmingham stage, Dariya Derkach She won gold with a personal best of 14.60 (+1.9) after a race she dominated from start to finish. At 33, after three Achilles tendon surgeries last season, the Italian athlete had an unforgettable evening. In 2023, she won silver at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. Derkach She produced a fantastic run: 14.53m in a slightly windy start (+2.1m), then 14.48m (+1.3m) and a blank over fifteen meters, until her breakthrough on her fourth jump, improving her best by eight centimeters to beat Belgian Saliyya Guisse (14.46m/+2.4m) and Bulgarian Aleksandra Nacheva (14.40m/+3.4m). This earned Italy's first gold medal in the women's triple jump at the European Outdoor Championships, following Simona La Mantia's silver medal in 2010, who won the indoor continental gold in 2011. Erika Saraceni finished twelfth with 13.48m (+2.2m).
In the 800 meters, Francesco Pernici finished fifth in 1:45.77 with a comeback sprint, just six hundredths of a second off the bronze medal, while victory went to Ireland's Mark English (1:45.36) ahead of Croatian Marino Bloudek (1:45.62) and Spaniard Mohamed Attaoui (1:45.71). Dario Dester finished eleventh in the decathlon with 8,032 points, and Alberto Nonino was twentieth (7,495). Fausto Desalu advanced to the finals in the 200 meters with a time of 20.08 (+2.9), the third fastest time of the semifinals, and twenty-year-old Filippo Dezza, who improved to 20.35 (+0.5), the fifth fastest Italian overall. Eduardo Longobardi was eliminated with a personal best of 20.42 (+1.6).
