What were your highlights from the European Indoor Championships in Toruń? Here are some of the best bits with links to our coverage

Struggling with athletics withdrawal symptoms after the European Indoors in Poland? Same here. So we decided to compile 12 top moments from the championships.

Keely Hodgkinson – a star is born

At AW we’ve known about Keely Hodgkinson’s rare talent for some time. After the teenager won British 800m titles indoors and out in 2020 we did a video interview with her earlier this winter here.

But in Poland she made an even bigger name for herself with a performance that belied her years. CLICK HERE to read more.

Ingebrigtsen DQ controversy

Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s showdown with Marcin Lewandowski over 1500m was one of the most eagerly-awaited clashes of the championships. The Polish athlete was racing on home soil and was defending his title after beating Ingebrigtsen in Glasgow in 2019.

Ingebrigtsen is two years older, wiser and even stronger than he was in Glasgow, though, so he set a pace that Lewandowski could not match to ease to victory.

But that was only the start of the story because the Norwegian was then harshly disqualified for accidentally stepping briefly off the track. Then, some time later, was reinstated and awarded gold, which he added to with a further title two days later in the 3000m.

The AW report for the 1500m – CLICK HERE – not surprisingly had to be rewritten a few times in the space of a couple of hours and fans are still debating the DQ decision today. And to read about his 3000m win, CLICK HERE.

DQ controversy deja vu

There was something about the 1500m races in Poland. After the Ingebrigtsen controversy in the men’s race, there was a similar debate in the women’s race when Holly Archer finished runner-up to Elise Vanderelst but was disqualified for jostling … and then finally reinstated and awarded silver.

The Briton endured a rollercoaster of emotions as she sat tearfully in the arena to see her the GB protest would be successful followed by the inevitable counter-protests from rival nations. CLICK HERE to read more.

Hitting the high notes

Like Hodgkinson, Yaroslava Mahuchikh is only 19 but performs like a seasoned veteran. The Ukrainian cooly took women’s high jump gold with a series of first-time clearances.

CLICK HERE to read more about her exploits in Poland.

Yet sometimes the best moments do not always involve the winners. Emily Borthwick was never going to challenge Mahuchikh for gold but the British athlete was delighted nonetheless to improve her PB from 1.87m to 1.91m in qualifying.

The 23-year-old was eighth in the final but surely travelled home happy after such an improvement and the photograph of her celebrating was one of most memorable images of the weekend.

Captain leads by example

Jodie Williams emerged as one of the great stories of the championships. A prodigious teenage talent she has struggled at times to make her mark as a senior athlete but she came of age in Poland with a hard-fought bronze in a top-class women’s 400m. She proved an inspirational choice as the GB team captain too and she led by example.

CLICK HERE to read about her event, which was won by the magnificent Femke Bol of the Netherlands. For Williams, her podium achievement came 10 years after she placed fourth in the European Indoors 60m final.

Quick off the Markovc

Athletics fans have been relatively starved of major events in recent months due to the pandemic. So not surprisingly they tuned into the coverage from Poland in their droves and there was a peak audience on BBC of 1.2 million during the women’s 3000m on Friday night.

This saw Amy-Eloise Markovc taking gold for Britain from Alice Finot of France with Brit Verity Ockenden a close third. The first track final of the championships was a great tonic for fans who have been starved of action lately – to read more about it CLICK HERE.

Sister act deliver

Tiffany Porter and Cindy Sember have had a challenging time in the run-up to these championships. Porter gave birth to a daughter in July 2019 while her younger sister Sember has endured Achilles problems since placing fourth in the Olympic sprint hurdles final in 2016.

In the 60m hurdles final in Poland, Dutch athlete Nadine Visser lived up to her mantle as favourite, but Sember and Porter won silver and bronze – CLICK HERE to read more.

Combined brilliance

Nafi Thiam and Kevin Mayer were a class apart in the pentathlon and heptathlon competitions. Olympic champion Thiam showed her Tokyo preparations are on track, while decathlon world record-holder Mayer also showed fine form.

They did not have it all their own way, though. Simon Ehammer, the European under-20 champion, led the early stages of the heptathlon before faltering on the second day. Making her senior GB debut, Holly Mills actually led the pentathlon briefly and held on to finish fifth in the end.

In addition Noor Vidts impressed in the pentathlon to ensure a one-two for Belgium. CLICK HERE to read about the pentathlon and CLICK HERE for the men’s heptathlon.

Swiss speed merchant

Ajla Del Ponte set one of eight world leading marks during the championships with her blistering 7.03 win in the women’s 60m. We don’t want to dwell too heavily on who wasn’t in Poland but it would have been fascinating to see how Del Ponte would have fared against Dina Asher-Smith, whose best this year is 7.08.

CLICK HERE to read about Del Ponte’s impressive run, whereas you can CLICK HERE to read about Marcell Lamont Jacobs’ emphatic men’s 60m win in a world lead of 6.47.

A high jump duel to remember

In one of the rare finals to be played out during the morning sessions, Maksim Nedasekau and Gianmarco Tamberi enjoyed a titanic clash which left everyone thoroughly entertained.

Tamberi was defending his title – minus his trademark half-beard and with blonde hair – and the Italian jumped 2.35m but with a world lead of 2.37m the Belarus athlete Nedasekau took gold in dramatic style.

CLICK HERE to read how it unfolded.

Duplantis a class apart

Mondo Duplantis showed why he is one of the biggest stars in world athletics when he won the pole vault and attempted a world record height for good measure.

CLICK HERE to find out about his win and how he ended up being challenged by Lavillenie but not the one we predicted.

Wilhem the conqueror

Not only did the men’s 60m hurdles produce one of the headlines of the championships but it saw a great duel between Britain’s Andy Pozzi and Frenchman Wilhem Belocian.

CLICK HERE to read more about it.