European athletics had endless reason to celebrate on the penultimate day of the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene with three gold medals and two cleansweeps.
There was a double triumph for France, with Axel Chapelle taking the pole vault and Rouguy Diallo winning the triple jump, and in the discus, victory for Croatian Martin Markovic.
In a week where many juniors have followed the exploits of their senior stars, Chapelle joined that list with glory for a country who has seen Renaud Lavillenie break the pole vault indoor world record this year.
But it was another French pole vault hero who is inspiring Chapelle - the 1996 Olympic champion Jean Galfione, who won this world junior title in Plovdiv in 1990.
Chapelle, 19, triumphed with 5.55m as he led a European 1-2-3 - all with personal bests - as Russia’s Daniil Kotov, 19, took second with 5.50m on countback from Oleg Zernikel, 19, of Germany.
It was no surprise that Chapelle found himself at the top of the podium because he confirmed his position as favourite of a competition which he entered with the leading height of 5.52m.
Twelve months on from sharing silver at the European Junior Championships in Rieti, Chapelle had a fine series of vaults with just the one foul on his way to the title.
That came at 5.45m, having successfully cleared 5.20m and 5.35m, before he went over at 5.50m and 5.55m at the first attempt.
But Chapelle had to hold his nerve as Kotov reached 5.55m without a blip before failing on his three goes at the height.
While 5.64m proved too much for now for Chapelle, by then it did not matter as he was the champion, a win he had taken all in his stride.
As he told the IAAF: “It was a normal day for me. I woke up, had my breakfast and was ready to go. France has a good history because we have great coaches. Jean Galfione is my mentor and he inspires me a lot.”
After Wilhem Belocian’s glory in the 110m hurdles on Thursday night, France now have three golds as Diallo, 19, leaped to success in the triple jump to join Chapelle in triumph on Saturday.
It was some performance, too, with victory being nailed with a heavily wind-assisted 14.44m (+3.3) in the third round before a fourth round effort of 14.20m was a national junior record.
That was some personal best as she entered the event with a top mark of 13.77m.
Infact, ultimately Diallo had secured victory with her opening jump of 14.24m as Cuba’s Liadagmis Povea was second with 14.07m and China’s Xiaohong Li was third with 14.03m.
“I didn’t have a particular goal coming into the competition,” said Diallo, talking to the IAAF. “I just wanted to jump far. I am happy about beating my personal best. I won the world title, it feels really good.”
Markovic, 18, led a second European cleansweep in the discus as he won with 66.94m from Germany’s Henning Prufer, 18, with 64.18m, and Sven Martin Skagestad, 19, of Norway, with 63.21m.
Even with four fouls from his six efforts, Markovic took the title in style with the third round proving the key after his 64.70m in the opening round.
“All I can say is happy, happy, happy,” said Markovic, clearly delighted.
Europe won another medal in the women’s 400m hurdles final with a record-breaking run by Great Britain’s Shona Richards who took second in 56.16, with Americans either side of her, as Shamier Little won in 55.66 and Jade Miller finished third in 56.22.
Richards, 18, broke the national junior best of 56.46 which Perri Shakes-Drayton had held since 2007 and she told British Athletics: 'In my head I was thinking ‘come on fight for that place’ and I completely forgot about the national record. As soon as you forget about things like that it’s when you get them. It was great when I realised I had it and it’s kind of a double win.”
And as the day came to a conclusion, there was another European medal in the women’s 4x400m relay as Germany Junior won bronze in 44.65 behind United States Junior in 43.46 and Jamaica Junior in 43.97.