Dear fans of athletics!
Today we present you the profiles of the European indoor champions in the 400m. The fastest woman was Léa Sprunger (Switzerland), among men won Karsten Warholm (Norway). The careers of both athletes are similar, details you can find below.
Léa Sprunger is 30-year-old athlete, born in Nyon. She has started doing sport at the age of 10, at the beginning she competing in the combined events. In later years she focused on the 200m, 400m and 400m hurdles. In 2016 at European Championships in Amsterdam she got bronze medal in the 400m hurdles and two years later in Berlin she became the European Champion in the same event. The Swiss athlete won the World Athletics Indoor Tour in 2018. Sprunger was the fastest woman at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in the 400m. This year, she was competed in four indoor meetings and her best performance was in Torun at the Orlen Copernicus Cup with 51.93. Curiously, Léa Sprunger competed at the Swiss Indoor Championships in the... 60m, finally winning the silver medal. She also participated at the Impossible Games in Oslo, her first outdoor meeting this season. In the 300m hurdles she was third.Sprunger's indoor personal best in the 400m is 51.28, set on 15 February 2018 in Torun at the Copernicus Cup meeting.
Karsten Warholm is 24-year-old athlete, born in Ulsteinvik.
Like Léa Sprunger, he began his career with the combined events. His first success was the gold medal at the Donetsk 2013 World U18 Championships in the octathlon. Two years later, in Eskilstuna, Warholm became the double silver medalist at the European U20 Championships in the 400m and decathlon. Next medals he got in 2017 at the European U23 Championships in Bydgoszcz. He was second in the 400m and first in the 400m hurdles. Less than a month later in London he became a World Champion in his favourite event, 400m hurdles and since then he is undefeated at the championships. The Norwegian won at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin and the 2019 World Championships in Doha. Meanwhile, he won the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in the 400m with 45.05, equalling the European indoor record! This year Warholm competed two times, once in his hometown at the indoor meeting in the 400m (45.97) and on 11 June at the Impossible Games in Oslo he clocked 33.78 in the 300m hurdles. Warholm's indoor personal best in the 400m is 45.05, set on 2 March 2019 in Glasgow at the European Athletics Indoor Championships.
| European indoor records | ||
| 49.59 | Jarmila Kratochvilova (Czechoslovakia) | 7.03.1982 Milan |
| 45.05 | Thomas Schönlebe (East Germany) | 5.02.1988 Sindelfingen |
| Karsten Warholm (Norway) | 2.03.2019 Glasgow | |
| Indoor championships records | ||
| 49.59 | Jarmila Kratochvilova (Czechoslovakia) | 7.03.1982 Milan |
| 45.05 | Karsten Warholm (Norway) | 2.03.2019 Glasgow |
