Five recently crowned individual European champions from the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships will compete at the 54th Palio Citta della Quercia, a European Athletics Premium Permit Meeting, on Thursday (23).
Two of the five will compete in the 800m as reigning two-time European 800m champion Nataliya Pryshchepa from Ukraine faces European indoor and outdoor 1500m champion Laura Muir. Muir was planning to attempt a middle distance double in Berlin before a small Achilles complaint prompted her to change her racing plans.
Muir still has a faster season’s best than Pryshchepa in the 800m - 1:59.09 to 1:59.83. The line-up also includes reigning two-time European indoor 800m champion Selina Buchel from Switzerland, former European champion Lynsey Sharp from Great Britain, two-time European 800m silver medallist Renelle Lamote from France and recently crowned world U20 champion Diribe Welteji from Ethiopia.
Also on the track, France’s European champion Pascal Martinot-Lagarde faces a strong field in the 110m hurdles including Jamaica’s Ronald Levy. Levy has a marginally faster season’s best than Martinot-Lagarde - 13.13 to 13.17.
Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou produced a season’s best of 8.25m to win the European long jump title and the 20-year-old will be looking to take a victory over Marquis Dendy from the United States. Tentoglou is making rapid process through the ranks and he won on Italian soil last July at the European U20 Championships in Grosseto.
Germany’s Christin Hussong will also compete in the javelin. Hussong produced a championship record of 67.90m to win the European title in Berlin and she maintained that form with 65.07m just a few days later in Thun. Her closest rival should be Australia’s Kelsey-Lee Roberts.
Another highlight will be the men’s high jump featuring 2016 European champion Gianmarco Tamberi. Tamberi just missed out on the medals at the European Championships in Berlin and he will face Ilya Ivanyuk on home soil who beat him for the bronze medal earlier this month.