Iheme and Chambers cruise through as Obinna-Alo strikes early PB on opening morning in Rieti.

The 2026 European Athletics U18 Championships got rolling in sweltering conditions at the Stadio Raul Guidobaldi on Thursday morning (July 16), with temperatures already pushing past 35°C by the time the first heats were fired off, and Great Britain and Northern Ireland's young team made a promising start to the four-day event.

The blue-riband men's 100m produced the morning's headline British moment, as Radley AC's Divine Iheme underlined his billing as one of the form sprinters in this age group with a comfortable heat win in 10.46 (0.2). The 16-year-old, who arrived in Rieti off the back of a world U18 best over 60m indoors this winter, never looked troubled off the blocks and eased down well inside the line to book his place in Friday's semi-finals without needing to show his full hand. Sweden's Eliah Andersson (10.52) and Slovakia's Timotej Nemcek, who smashed his national U18 record with 10.41, set the early pace elsewhere in the round, but it was Iheme's economy of effort that caught the eye.

There was a second green light for the GB & NI sprint group when Gateshead Harriers' Celine Obinna-Alo lit up the women's 100m heats, clocking a personal best of 11.45 (1.8) to advance. Coached by former world and European indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty, Obinna-Alo looked sharp through the drive phase and will fancy her chances of pushing on again when the rounds resume. She was edged only by home favourite Carolina Ventura of Portugal, who produced the shock of the morning with an 11.42 national U18 record from lane eight, and Italy's own Kelly Doualla — last year's double European U20 champion — who cruised through in 11.46 to warm applause from the home crowd.

The standout British performance of the morning, however, perhaps belonged to Charlie Chambers. The Basingstoke & Mid Hants athlete, who arrived in Rieti as this year's European U18 season leader off a personal best of 1:47.77, made light work of his 800m heat, controlling the pace from the front before powering away to win in 1:53.39. It was a heat run well within himself, and with Turkey's Emre Çinaragaç the only man inside 1:52 all morning, Chambers looks in ominous form heading into the business end of the championships.

Not every British story had a happy ending before lunch. Evelyn Wildman, the Chiltern Harriers athlete who arrived as Europe's fastest performer of the year in the women's 2000m steeplechase, was forced out of her heat and failed to finish — a cruel blow for an athlete many had fancied for a medal, and one that will sting Steve Perkin's charge given the form she carried into Italy.

Elsewhere in Rieti, the hosts enjoyed a productive session on their own patch, with two Italian throwers safely through the women's hammer qualification and a home high jumper booking his place in Saturday's final with a competent 2.05m. Ukraine's Milaniia Kokhan — sister of Olympic bronze medallist Mykhaylo Kokhan — produced the hammer mark of the morning, a 68.05m personal best that promises much for Friday's final.

In the opening event of the girls' heptathlon, Finland's European season leader Alisa Launonen set the tone with a swift 13.33 (1.0) in the 100m hurdles, with Germany's Svea Funck and Poland's Aleksandra Kondratowicz both inside 13.60 for personal bests of their own.

There was also a qualifying win for Italy's Valerio Paparo in the men's 100m and a productive morning for the host nation's middle-distance and jumps squads, all played out in front of an increasingly vocal crowd building towards this evening's session.