ROME: Croatian discus legend Sandra Elkasevic got her bid for a record seventh European title off to a smooth start by cruising through qualifiers at Rome's Stadio Olimpico on Friday.
The 33-year-old, twice Olympic gold medallist and a two-time former world champion, is unbeaten on the European stage since Barcelona in 2010, winning successive continental editions in Zurich, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Berlin and Munich over the past 12 years.
Better known by her maiden name Perkovic, Elkasevic – one of 14 female title defenders on show in Rome – threw 65.62 metres with her second throw to guarantee her place in Saturday's final.
The opening session of the six-day European championships, in bright and hot conditions, also featured the opening two events of the women's heptathlon.
Britain's world champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson is seeking to win her first European title after winning silver in Berlin in 2018.
It will be Johnson-Thompson's first heptathlon of the season, having competed in a number of individual events, and she described the seven-discipline event over two days akin to "spinning plates" such is the juggling of mental and physical loads.
She opened with a season's best 13.66 seconds in the 100m hurdles, with Belgian rival Nafi Thiam clocking 13.74sec.
Thiam's teammate Noor Vidts set a personal best of 13.16, just two-hundredths off the fastest time of the day by Switzerland's Annika Kalin.
Thiam, a two-time Olympic champion as well as defending double European gold medallist and a two-time world title holder, then managed a best of 1.95m in the high jump to take control, with Johnson-Thompson bailing out at 1.83m
The heptathletes compete in the shot put and 200m in Friday's evening session before rounding off on Saturday with the long jump, javelin and 800m.
Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou made short work of qualifying in the men's long jump, the Olympic and world champion sailing out to 8.14 metres at the first time of asking to seal a spot in Saturday's final.
Switzerland's Simon Ehammer notched up a world-leading 8.41m to ensure competition will be intense.
In qualification for the men's discus, Sweden's Daniel Stahl, like Miltiadis also a reigning world and Olympic champion, advanced with a best of 63.79m.
Heading the field, however, was Lithuania's recently-crowned world record holder Mykolas Alekna, with 67.50m.
Slovenia's Kristjan Ceh, who was 2022 world champion and won silver behind Stahl in Budapest last year, managed 65.64m as the top three promise a battle royale in the final in Friday's evening session.
Other finals include the 20km race walk, shot put and 5,000m for women, as well as the 4x400m mixed relay.
The latter will feature Femke Bol, the Dutch runner bidding for three gold medals as she is also listed to compete in the 400m hurdles and the women's 4x400m relay.
She achieved treble gold last time out in Munich in 2022, instead winning the 400m flat as one of her disciplines rather than the mixed relay.
Italy's Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs will also be on the track, in qualifiers for the blue riband event, the final of which is scheduled for Saturday. - AFP