Serbia’s Elzan Bibic marked the end of the opening day of action at the inaugural European Athletics Youth Championships in Tbilisi by winning the boys’ 3,000m final ©Getty Images

Serbia’s Elzan Bibic marked the end of the opening day of action at the inaugural European Athletics Youth Championships in Tbilisi by winning the boys' 3,000 metres final.

The 17-year-old clocked a time of 8min 09.06sec to finish 11.14 seconds ahead of nearest challenger Annasse Mahboub El Hamdouini of Spain. 

El Hamdouini’s time of 8:20.20 was a personal best, as was the 8:20.94 of Romanian bronze medallist Adrian Garcea.

The only other final of the day came in the girls' 5,000m race walk as Meryem Bekmez registered a personal best time of 22:50.22 to lead a Turkish one-two ahead of Ayşe Tekdal.

Tekdal’s time of 22:58.17 was also a personal best and was enough to claim the silver medal with Spain’s Marina Peña third in 23:05.90.

Meryem Bekmez led a Turkish one-two in the girls' 5,000m race walk ©Getty Images
Meryem Bekmez led a Turkish one-two in the girls' 5,000m race walk ©Getty Images

The four-day programme in Georgia's capital is being played out at the Tbilisi Athletics Arena, which has a capacity of 3,000

Action is due to continue tomorrow with finals scheduled in both boys' and girls’ competition.

Boys will compete for medals in the shot put, hammer throw, long jump and 100m, while girls will vie for honours in the discus throw, 3,000m and 100m.