In California track & field's busiest post-NCAA Championships slate of competition yet, seven Golden Bears appeared in a total of six national championships across the globe on Saturday in search of glory and potential Olympic bids. Throughout the day, all seven of them shone – three Bears earned gold medals, while two others earned silver and the final two advanced to their respective event finals.
 
The first of Saturday's Bears to win a national title was incoming freshman Valentina Savva, competing in the women's hammer at GSP Stadium in Nicosia, Cyprus. Savva, who came into the meet as the reigning champion, earned her second career gold with a toss of 67.00m (219-9) on her second throw and surpassed the eventual second-place mark by nearly 16 feet. She will now advance to her third World U20 Championships, hosted this year in Lima, Peru, on Aug. 27-31; in both of her previous appearances at Worlds, Savva has placed within the top eight.
 
Cal's next national title of the day went to another hammer specialist in alumna Anna Purchase, competing at Manchester Regional Arena in Manchester, England. Purchase was primed for a big day at the UK Championships after being the only British woman to make the hammer final at the European Championships; she delivered on Saturday with a winning mark of 68.79m (225-8) on her second attempt, defeating 2023 British Champion Charlotte Payne by nearly five feet for the first British gold of her career. Currently, Purchase sits at 16th in the overall World Rankings Quota.
 
At the Bell Canadian U20 Championships in Montreal, rising sophomore Justin Pretre punched his ticket to the World U20 Championships with a winning time of 3:53.89 in the 1500m, far surpassing his 3:58.35 from Friday's preliminary race. Battling rainy conditions at Complexe Sportlife Claude-Robillard, Pretre – clad in his "Golden Bears" uniform – saved his fastest 400m for last, running the final lap in just over 54 seconds to move to the head of the pack.
 
"It's just been excellent to see how I've grown as a runner," he said after the competition in an interview with Canadian Running magazine. "I couldn't have asked for more from this season. I've had to kick against some of the best… I've been incredibly lucky to have that experience. Coming into the race today, I knew that that was what it was going to take to get the win. I had faith in my training and gave it everything that I had those last 100 meters."
 
Two Cal discus throwers earned silver in their respective competitions on Saturday. Rising redshirt senior Caisa-Marie Lindfors, a 2024 European Championships finalist and the school record-holder in the event, took to the ring at the Swedish Championships at Rimnersvallen in Uddevalla, Sweden, and bettered Friday's qualifying mark of 54.38m (178-5) to 58.93m (193-4) on her first throw of the final to trail only Vanessa Kamga's 59.90m (196-6). Incoming freshman Lucija Leko, competing in her national championships at Stadion Branko Čavlovic-Čavlec in Karlovac, Croatia, posted her best mark of 56.44m (185-2) on her fourth attempt to finish second behind eight-time Croatian Discus Champion Marija Tolj and her result of 61.62m (202-2). Leko's meet is not done, as she is slated to appear at the Croatian Championships on Sunday in the shot put contest.
 
Back in Manchester, alumna Georgia Bell continued her remarkable season with a heat-winning time of 4:13.71 in the 1500m, which also ranked third best overall behind Heat Two's Katie Snowden (4:13.34) and Melissa Courtney-Bryant (4:13.52). Bell, who took silver at the 2024 European Championships, has already reached the Olympic Standard with a career best of 4:00.41 set in May at the Prefontaine Classic; she will now seek to officially clinch a trip to Paris on Sunday in the event final.
 
The only Cal man to compete on Saturday was Finnish alumnus Tuomas Kaukolahti, who will aim for a second national outdoor title in the triple jump on Sunday after leading all entries in the qualifying round. Kaukolahti, a two-time All-American at Cal, posted a mark of 15.62m (51-3.75) at Kaarlen kenttä in Vaasa, Finland, to squeak out the top result by a quarter inch.
 
In addition to Leko, Bell and Kaukolahti, one additional Bear is slated to compete on Sunday to close out the weekend – 2024 graduate Busola Akinduro will appear as the top seed in the women's triple jump at the Bell Track & Field Trials in Montreal after leaping to a career-high 13.25m (43-5.75) indoors at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational in February.
 
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