Estonia's Viola Hambidge takes home U20 European champs bronze
Estonian hurdler Viola Hambidge delivered a powerful final sprint in the women's 400-meter hurdles final at the ongoing European U20 Championships in Tampere, securing the bronze medal.
Hambidge was still in fourth place at the final hurdle, but with a powerful finishing burst she caught Finland's Mila Heikkonen, who had been running in front of the home crowd, and claimed the bronze medal at the European U20 Championships with a time of 56.71 seconds. It is Estonia's first medal at this year's championships.
"I can't even put it into words — I'm just incredibly grateful to everyone! I feel so warm inside, I want to give a big hug to everyone who has invested in me," the Estonian said after the final.
Hambidge also smashed her personal best, as well as the Estonian U20 and U23 records, for the second day in a row: on Friday she improved her top mark by 0.39 seconds and on Saturday by another 0.45 seconds. She now ranks second on Estonia's all-time list, behind only Maris Mägi, who clocked 56.56 seconds in Tallinn in 2013.
The battle for the European title was extremely tight, but in the end Romania's Alexandra Stefania Uta prevailed with a time of 55.55 seconds, beating France's Meta Tumba by just one-tenth of a second. Hambidge finished more than a second behind the winner, but edged Finland's Heikkonen by 0.07 seconds.
"The race was so rough — I don't think I hit a single hurdle the way I wanted. At the end I saw I was in fourth and thought, I'm not going to finish fourth. I fought all the way!" the Estonian said joyfully.
At the start of the season, Hambidge was hampered by an injury, but the hurdler — who turned 19 in July — can now be satisfied with her year. "It's been tough, but I tried to stay optimistic, and when I broke the record at the Baltic Championships... With every race I became more confident. It's been a fantastic season — I wouldn't change a thing!"
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste, Marcus Turovski
