Tito Odunaike, Lucy Bull and Freddie Rowe all struck gold on a seven-medal final day as the British team topped the medal table at the European U18 Championships.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland finished the 2026 European Athletics U18 Championships on Sunday (July 19) as the outstanding nation in Rieti, closing out four days at the Stadio Raul Guidobaldi with a further seven medals in the final session to secure top spot in the overall table — a fitting climax to a championships that produced eight gold medals, three championship records and a string of statement performances from British athletics' brightest teenage talents.

Three of those medals on the final day were gold and it was Tito Odunaike who set the tone in the men's triple jump. The Marshall Milton Keynes athlete, who is coached by David Johnson and already the youngest ever winner of a British senior indoor title earlier this year, produced a championship record leap of 16.12m — equalling his own personal best and the world U18 lead — to win by more than half a metre from his nearest challenger.

Lucy Bull then added a second gold in the women's javelin, smashing her personal best with a throw of 56.60m. The Cheltenham & County Harriers athlete, who is coached by Carolyn Franks, arrived in Italy unbeaten in 2026 and having already set a championship best performance at the English Schools Championships and she duly capped that form with the biggest throw of her career when the title was on the line.

The middle-distance runners then did the rest, with Freddie Rowe storming to men's 1500m gold in 3:55.33, the Havering AC athlete, coached by Patrick Gahagan, timing his finishing burst to perfection. Better still for Britain, team-mate Alistair Street followed him home for silver in 3:56.80, turning the race into a British one-two.

There was more silverware for Britain in the men's javelin, where Ned Scott produced a PB of 70.02m to take silver, while Oliver Downs capped his decathlon campaign with bronze with 7341 — with team-mate Douglas Knox not far behind in fifth in a personal best of 7255.

Lucia Bertacchini completed the day's medal haul with bronze in the women's 400m hurdles, the Winchester & District athlete clocking a personal best of 58.13 in a race that had already produced one of the standout individual performances of the entire championships.

Britain's strength in depth was clear across the rest of the final day, too. Leila Newth set two national U18 triple jump records on her way to fourth place with a best of 13.16m, while Poppy Guest and Sonny Allen both ran well in the women's 3000m final, finishing fifth and sixth in 9:33.84 and 9:34.50 respectively.

The women's medley relay quartet of Shivelle Marshall, Holly Ryan, Darcy Coslett and Bertacchini finished fourth in 2:07.59, though the men's team were disqualified. Jorjia March came eighth in the women's 800m final in 2:07.84, Isabella Moulton clocked 13.80 to reach the 100m hurdles semi-finals and Alessia Scala cleared 1.70m to finish 11th in the women's high jump final.

The British successes started with Joe Scanes' gold in the men's 3000m on the opening night, continued through Divine Iheme's championship record 100m victory and Celine Obinna-Alo's bronze in the 100m women's race and gathered pace through a stunning third day in which Bronson Hearn-Smith struck 200m gold in a championship record 20.70 — stepping in after team-mate Ethan Heggarty was controversially disqualified from his semi-final — while Moyo Stumpenhusen set a UK record of 64.92m to win the discus and Samuel James equalled Steve Smith's 36-year-old British U18 high jump record with a championship record 2.25m, with Magnus Riddell adding 800m bronze in 1:50.12.

By the time the closing session in Rieti was done, the final tally read eight golds, two silvers and four bronzes — 14 medals in total, comfortably enough to top the table and another reminder, following the 2013 European U20 Championships that were also staged in this stadium and produced nine British golds, that Rieti is a proven happy hunting ground for this country's age-group athletes.

Away from the British celebrations, the standout individual performance of the closing stages belonged to Czechia's Linda Botková in the women's 400m hurdles. The 16-year-old, already the championship record holder after clocking 56.79 in the heats to break the mark set by her compatriot Nina Radová in 2024, produced one of the runs of the championships in the final itself, storming home in 55.19 to not only retain the championship record but set a European U20 best in the process.

Slovenia’s Živa Remic was also impressive in the women's 800m as she improved her own championship record to win in style. One day after running 2:04.19 in Saturday’s semi-final, she went through the first lap in 58.53 in the final and went on to run a CBP of 2:03.77.

Elsewhere across the championships, home favourite Kelly Doualla had given the host nation a night to remember with her sensational 11.14 to win the women's 100m — a European U18 best that ranked as one of the standout marks of the year at any age group.