Willem Renders won Belgium’s first medal at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, by clinching gold in the 5,000 metres on Friday.
The 18-year-old completed the race in 14:14.59, finishing nearly 15 seconds slower than his personal best of 13:55.09, set in May at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels. He edged out Sweden’s Karl Ottfalk, who finished in 14:14.78, and Norway’s Magnus Oyen, who clocked 14:15.32.
In the high jump, Alexander Comte secured a place in Sunday’s final by clearing 2.12 metres, surpassing his previous personal best of 2.11 metres set in Ciney in June. However, Lorenzo Nys only managed to clear 2.04 metres and was not among the fourteen finalists.
Adrien Quartier failed to reach the final of the 400 metres after finishing fifth in the second semi-final with a time of 47.45, which was 0.52 seconds over his personal best of 46.93. To qualify for the final, Quartier would have needed to run 46.90.
