It was a Super Sunday for the Netherlands as orange turned to gold at a sensational closing evening at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Its ambition was to create an unforgettable and inspiring event under the motto 'Moving People' and to further position athletics among both young and old. For the host nation, they celebrated an incredible five gold medals in a single session, with Jessica Schilder winning the women’s shot put, finally bringing her outdoor form that gleaned European titles outdoors at Munich 2022 and Roma 2024 to the indoor arena in front of an adoring home crowd.
The Netherlands delighted home supporters with a brilliant men's 4x400m relay win. In a thrilling and wide-open battle, all six teams appeared to be in contention at the halfway stage, before Olympic mixed relay champion Isiah Klein Ikkink gave the Dutch an element of control on the third leg. There was also a surprise victory for Samuel Chapple in the men’s 800m in his first international final, whilst experienced international Menno Vloon got just reward for years of striving for a premier championship medal, sharing the men’s pole vault title with Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis.
Almost inevitably, the host’s men’s and women’s 4x400m teams each won gold, with Femke Bol bringing home the baton in the last event of the championships. It meant the host nation topped the medal table with nine medals in total; five gold yesterday, Lieke Klaver’s (pic) women’s 400m final, the mixed 4x400m, plus silver medals from Nadine Visser (60m hurdles) on Friday and Sofie Dokter (heptathlon), again, yesterday - it also meant a Dutch sweep of all available relay titles.
Elsewhere, a mention for Italian Zaynab Dosso, who won her first international title as Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, in contrast, won her eighth major senior gold medal. And Italian Zaynab Dosso won her first international title as Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh won her eighth major senior gold.
Great Britain won three silvers on the final day, to finish with seven medals, as George Mills was second in the men's 3,000m behind Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who took his tally of European indoor golds to a record-equalling seven with a third consecutive 1500m and 3,000m double. For compatriot Melissa Courtney-Bryant, she had to settle for second place in the women's 3,000m after being pipped on the line by Ireland's Sarah Healy.
GB were also runners-up in the women's 4x400m relay, as Lina Nielsen, Hannah Kelly, Emily Newnham and Amber Anning ran a national record of three minutes 24.89 seconds to take silver behind the Netherlands in what was the final event of the championships. Other UK&NI headlines saw Jade O'Dowda narrowly miss out on a podium finish in the women's pentathlon after being edged out by Ireland's Kate O'Connor in the final event.
Jessica Schilder handled the pressure of being the Dutch home favourite superbly as she won shot put gold with a national record mark of 20.67. In doing so, she also went one centimetre further than the world lead of Canada's Sarah Mitton.
Germany's Yemisi Ogunleye tried to keep her honest with 19.56 in the second round, but that was the closest anyone got through the evening to a relaxed, yet focussed, Schilder. Auriol Dongmo took bronze for Portugal, 30 centimetres behind as the gaps between the podium places stayed relatively solid.
After a final day of ‘wall-to-wall’ medals and celebrations of true “sport,” the next major international athletics meeting is the 2025 World Athletics Championships, which will be held in Tokyo, Japan, in September
