Togni and Sanchez take sprint hurdles titles for Italy and Switzerland

Rome: Matteo Togni set an Italian U20 record as he won the men’s 110m hurdles at the Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships on Sunday.

The Italian delivered a fluent display of sprint hurdling finishing in 13.27 (+0.4m/s), which was also a European lead.

Bulgaria’s Hristiyan Kasabov burst through from a slow start to win silver in a national U20 record of 13.31 and Czechia’s Matyáš Zach won bronze in 13.33, despite clattering the first and final hurdle and clipping several more.

Top ranked Jil Sanchez won the women’s 100m hurdles. It was the first major title for the Swiss athlete.

She exploded from lane three and was closely matched by Slovakia’s Laura Frlicková in lane four. The Swiss athlete was flawless over each barrier.

But as Italy’s Alessia Succo and France’s Melissa Benfatah moved into contention from lanes five and six, the Slovak who clocked an impressive 13.11 in the heats, began to fade.

But Sanchez held firm, winning in 13.24 in a 1.5m/s headwind. Benfatah came through for silver in 13.29 with Succo a further 0.03 back in bronze.