It rains medals in the indoor arena at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday evening. Simon Ehammer, Angelica Moser and Annik Kälin win precious metal.
08.03.2025, 20:52
08.03.2025, 21:54
SDA
A year ago in Glasgow, when Ehammer became world indoor champion, Skotheim almost caught him. This time, the Swiss athlete was only 50 points ahead of the 22-year-old before the final 1000 m run, who put in an impressive performance on the track and won the race. With 6558 points, Skotheim set a European record.
Ehammer had also set his sights on this and the gold medal. The Swiss hopeful missed out on this, but improved the Swiss record by a whopping 88 points with 6506 points.
On the second day, Ehammer once again took the lead in the intermediate classification with a time of 7.68 seconds in the hurdles sprint. The pole vault ended in a draw, with both athletes clearing 5.10 meters. The Swiss showed two good performances. To put Skotheim in trouble for the 1000 m race, however, he would have needed an exploit - as he did on the first day in the long jump and shot put.
Gold for Moser
After one miss each at 4.70 and 4.75 m, the 27-year-old from Zurich jumped 4.80 m on her first attempt. No competitor came close to this height. Silver went to Tina Sutej from Slovenia (4.75) and bronze to Marie-Julie Bonnin from France (4.70).
Moser equaled the Swiss indoor record of her mentor Nicole Büchler. Last summer, the Olympic fourth-placed athlete had improved the Swiss record outdoors to 4.88m. Moser failed three times at the height of 4.89 m when the gold medal was already secure.
In Apeldoorn, Moser competed as number 1 on the entry list and lived up to her role as favorite. It was her second European indoor gold medal. In 2021, she triumphed in Torun, Poland, with 4.75 m.
Kälin surprises in the long jump
After Moser, Annik Kälin was also able to celebrate a medal: the Grisons athlete won silver in the long jump, snatching a medal from the specialists. Kälin surprisingly left the favorite Malaika Mihambo from Germany behind her.
Kälin set a Swiss indoor record with 6.90 meters. She beat the old mark, which she had equaled in qualifying, by 13 centimetres. Kälin was just four centimetres short of the European indoor champion Larissa Iapichino from Italy.
The medal for the 24-year-old is a well-deserved reward. Kälin has continuously improved as an all-around athlete since her bronze medal at the 2022 European Championships in Munich. However, it was only after two and a half years that her improved performance was rewarded with another medal. Previously, the Olympic all-around fourth-placed athlete had only missed out on a coup on several occasions.
