The Netherlands’ 2014 European 1500m champion Sifan Hassan provided the outstanding performance at the first IAAF Indoor Permit meeting of 2015 when she sped to a national record and world-leading 1500m time of 4:02.57 at the Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on Saturday (31).

Spain’s Eusebio Caceres and USA’s Barbara Pierre were crowned as ‘best performers’ at the Meeting de Madrid, an IAAF World Challenge Meeting on Saturday (19).

Long jumpers usually don’t like morning qualifying rounds and so quite a few had problems getting their motors started on Wednesday as only three men went over the automatic qualifying distance of 8.10m.

Aleksandr Menkov is one of Russia’s big hopes for a home success in Moscow. The European indoor champion has been a model of consistency this season, but he is far from the only gold-medal contender.

When Spain’s Jesus Angel Garcia takes to the start line for the 50km Race Walk at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, he will make history for the most appearances by a male athlete in the history of the event.

The jumps provided some of the biggest highlights at the ninth European Athletics Under-23 Championships, which were held in Tampere, Finland, between 11-14 July, with pride of place going to Spain’s Eusebio Caceres and Italy’s Alessia Trost.

The annual IAAF World Challenge de Dakar meeting in Senegal saw the top honours going to Ethiopian distance runner Almaz Ayana as well as long jumpers Eusebio Caceres and Bianca Stuart on Wednesday (12).

Lemaitre springs a surprise in Rabat – IAAF World Challenge