Laura Frličková runs a 12.86-second 100m hurdle at the Banska Bystrica European Athletics U18 Championships

Laura Frličková of Slovakia electrified the home fans on Thursday evening at the European Athletics U18 Championships in Banska Bystrica by storming to a European U18 best in the 100m hurdles.

With a technically outstanding run of 12.86 (+2.0), the main home hope for gold and the current global U18 leader responded to the occasion, shaving 0.12 off of Cyréna Samba-Mayela’s seven-year-old record.

Her performance also placed her second on the global all-time U18 lists over the 76.2cm barriers, trailing only the world U20 gold winner Kerrica Hill of Jamaica with her personal best of 12.71 from 2022. She now has a full 0.50 advantage over the other qualifiers for Friday’s semi-finals, and she is a strong favorite to win gold in the final tomorrow.

“I was surprised by that,” she later said. “My goal was to qualify for the semifinals with a reasonable time, perhaps in the PB under 13.10 seconds.” It was never even in my dreams to get under 13 seconds, much less 12.9 seconds.

“I think I can achieve another outstanding outcome in the semifinals. I had no idea that I would run away from girls so quickly from the beginning. My intention was to slow down before finishing, but I decided to press through to the very end since I felt terrific and the females were far away.

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