The first day of the European Athletics Championships for men and women in the English city of Birmingham brought immense joy to Bulgarian sports.
The athletes Alexandra Nacheva and Gabriela Petrova successfully overcame the qualifications in the triple jump discipline and secured places among the top 12, who will compete for honors in the grand final on Thursday (August 13).
Bulgarian triumph in the triple jump sector
24-year-old Alexandra Nacheva demonstrated great form in her first attempt in Qualification Group A, where she recorded a result of 14.13 meters. Despite the two subsequent fouls, this achievement placed her in 8th place in the overall standings and proved to be quite enough for the final.
The experienced Gabriela Petrova (34 years old) also had a tactically mature competition in Group B. She started with 14.00 meters, and in her second attempt corrected her run and jumped 14.11 meters. Confident in her ranking ahead and aiming to stay fresh, Petrova strategically missed her third attempt, finishing just behind Nacheva in 9th place. The qualifying mark of 14.15 meters was covered by seven athletes, led by Italian Erika Saraceni with a personal best of 14.50 meters, according to official data from the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (bta.bg/bg/news/sport/1183065-aleksandra-nacheva-i-gabriela-petrova-se-klasiraha-na-finala-na-troyniya-skok-ot). Two years ago at the European Championships in Rome, Nacheva finished fourth and Petrova sixth, which gives serious hopes for a podium finish now in Birmingham.
Amy Hunt retains 100m title for Great Britain
In the most anticipated event of the evening session at the "Alexander Stadium", the representative of the hosts Amy Hunt became the new queen of the European sprint. The 24-year-old Briton won the gold medal in the women's 100 meters, stopping the clocks at exactly 11.00 seconds. In doing so, she retained the European title in the short sprint in her homeland, succeeding the previous champion Dina Asher-Smith, who finished fifth in 11.10 seconds.
Hunt made a phenomenal run in the last 40 meters to overtake Poland's Ewa Swoboda at the finish line, who took silver with a time of 11.02 seconds. The bronze medal went to Belgian Delphine Nkansa, who set a personal best of 11.06 seconds, inform the sports analysts in the athletics section of Sportal (sportal.bg/news-2026081021185964727). For Hunt, this is her first major individual outdoor women's title after the silver in the 200 meters at the World Championships in Tokyo last year and the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.