St Kitts&rsquo; sprinter Kim Collins continued to astound and defy Father Time at the traditional Russian Winter meeting, the second of the 2015 IAAF Indoor Permit meetings, which ironically fell on the warmest February day for many years in Moscow with temperatures about 3 degrees Celsius outside the CSKA Arena on Sunday (1). Collins, now 38 and a familiar face in the Russian capital, won the 60m in a world-leading time and national record of 6.48, shaving 0.01 from his previous best set last year. USA&rsquo;s Mike Rodgers was second in 6.56.&ldquo;I have six kids, and it now seems I&rsquo;ve got more mascots from the Russian Winter meeting than kids to give them to as presents,&rdquo; joked Collins.Joint world indoor high jump champions Kamila Licwinko and Mariya Kuchina were the only ones left in their event after both cleared 1.94m with their first jumps.They then fought out an exciting duel.The Pole cleared 1.97m with her first jump while Kuchina needed three attempts. Licwinko decided not to jump 1.99m, clearly thinking that Kuchina would struggle, but the latter jumped that height with her second try to put the pressure on. <h3>Licwinko moves into new territory </h3> However, Licwinko's nerve and form held and she confidently went over a national record, world-leading mark and meeting record of 2.01m on her first attempt while Kuchina brought the bar down three times.&ldquo;I am very happy to set a PB, I&rsquo;ve been feeling I was close to beating it for a while already,&rdquo; said Licwinko, who had three unsuccessful attempts at 2.03m &ldquo;I am improving with every competition this winter, which is nice. Hopefully, I will be on the top of my form at the European Indoors in Prague. It was very interesting to jump against Kuchina, she is young and talented, but I cannot say that the fact we are the joint world indoor champions makes her a special opponent for me.&rdquo;&nbsp; The men&rsquo;s high jump saw Dmitriy Semyonov and Daniyil Tsyplakov both go over 2.31m with their first attempts before failing at 2.34mHowever, Semyanov took a memorable win on count-back after adding one centimetre to his personal best.The pair also took a number of impressive scalps, including two men who jumped 2.40m last year. Aleksey Dmitrik only jumped 2.28m and was fourth while Ukraine&rsquo;s European silver medallist Andriy Protsenko could do no better than 2.24m and was sixth. &nbsp;The first final of the day was the men&rsquo;s 1500m and saw Kenya&rsquo;s Vincent Kibet win in a personal best and world-leading 3:37.79. His countryman Bethwell Birghen was a close second with 3:37.81 while Silas Kiplagat made it an all-Kenyan podium when he clocked 3:38.28 for third. The pre-event favourite Louis Tsatoumas matched expectations and won the long jump with 8.05m.The Greek jumper was the only one to jump beyond eight metres, with Russian champion Pavel Shalin second with 7.94m.World indoor 400m champion Pavel Maslak made an impressive comeback to the track after injury ruined much of his summer and the Czech sprinter posted a European-leading time of 45.80, winning by more than a second.Maslak also managed to break one of the oldest Russian Winter meeting records, which dated back to 1996, and the outing will give him considerable confidence in his bid to defend his European indoor 400m title on home soil in five weeks&rsquo; time.Triple jump specialist Yekaterina Koneva smashed her long jump best twice during the afternoon, with 6.81m on her first attempt and then 6.82m in the third round. Koneva is now second on the 2015 world list, but she still intends to compete in just the triple jump at the European Indoor Championships.&ldquo;People say I follow in Tatyana Lebedeva&rsquo;s steps but that's not really the case. I used to do sprints and long jump even before the triple," said Koneva. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t have ambitions for the double at the championships. If they had the triple on the (Russian Winter) meeting program this time, I would definitely prefer to do it and not the long jump."<h3>Balla close to Asian best</h3> Qatar&rsquo;s Musaeb Balla won the 600m in 1:15.99, just 0.16 shy of his own Asian indoor best for the non-championship distance that he set last year in Moscow.In the closest contest of the meeting, a photo-finish was needed to separate Cuba&rsquo;s Dayron Robles and Russia&rsquo;s Konstantin Shabanov in the 60m hurdles. Both men were given the same time of 7.69 but the verdict went to the former 110m world record-holder and 2008 Olympic champion.Curiously, the best Russian hurdler, two-time European 110m hurdles champion Sergey Shubenkov, was an interested observer and working for TV as he will not be competing indoors this season. &ldquo;I made my debut as a TV interviewer last summer when Colin Jackson came to visit me at my home in Barnaul, when he was there as an IAAF Ambassador," Shubenkov said. &ldquo;This time the interviews were very easy, just 15 seconds, so its hard to mess up an interview too badly.&rdquo; Belarusian Alina Talay won the women&rsquo;s 60m hurdles in 8.02.In the other women&rsquo;s track races, Ukraine&rsquo;s Olesya Povh won the 60m in 7.27 while there were home wins for Yekaterina Renzhina and Yekaterina Poistogova in the 400m and 800m, clocking 52.08 and 2:02.11 respectively.Renzhina, still only 20, ran a world-leading time on a standard track and took more than a second off her previous indoor best of 53.52 from last year. Russia&rsquo;s 2004 Olympic 800m champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy, who was recently appointed as the head coach of the Russian national team, was honoured with a farewell ceremony to officially declare the end to his track career and pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, currently on maternity leave, flew specially from Volgograd to say goodbye and pay tribute to one of the biggest Russian stars of her generation. &ldquo;Our international careers started at the same competition, at the World Youth Games in Moscow in 1998,&rdquo; recalled Isinbayeva.&ldquo;We both won back then, and both became the champions at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens,&rdquo; she added. "Now, I am very sad that if I am going to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, I will have to fly there without Yuriy."Natalia Maryanchik for the IAAF

St Kitts’ sprinter Kim Collins continued to astound and defy Father Time at the traditional Russian Winter meeting, the second of the 2015 IAAF Indoor Permit meetings, which ironically fell on the warmest February day for many years in Moscow with temperatures about 3 degrees Celsius outside the CSKA Arena on Sunday (1). 

Collins, Kibet and Licwinko all post world-leading marks in Moscow 

Jamaica’s Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce earned an expected victory in the 100m at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha, crossing the line in 11.13 on Friday (9).<o:p></o:p>However, after getting away to her customary smart start, she was pushed to the line by the taller athlete running one lane outside her, Blessing Okagbare.<o:p></o:p>The Nigerian who took 200m bronze at last year’s IAAF World Championships clocked 11.18, with third place going to Fraser-Pryce’s compatriot Kerron Stewart in 11.25.<o:p></o:p>The women’s 800m provided similarly compelling racing as Kenya’s 2013 world champion Eunice Sum bided her time before letting loose over the final 200 metres to win in a world-leading 1:59.33.<o:p></o:p>The flowing Kenyan was chased home by the USA’s world indoor champion Chanelle Price, whose reward was a personal best of 1:59.75.<o:p></o:p>World 400m champion LaShawn Merritt equalled his own 2014 world leading mark of 44.44.<o:p></o:p>The US sprinter was chased home down the final straight by five men virtually running in a line.<o:p></o:p>Second place went to Youssef Ahmed Masrahi, of Saudi Arabia, who clocked 44.77, with Czech Republic’s world indoor champion Pavel Maslak third in a national record of 44.79.<o:p></o:p>Kenya’s double Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi produced another world-leading performance as his burst of speed around the final bend saw him win the 3000m steeplechase in 8:04.12, with the 2008 Olympic champion, fellow Kenyan Brimin Kipruto, finishing second in 8:04.64, ahead of fellow countryman Paul Kipsiele Koech, who clocked 8:05.47 for third. Kenyans filled the first eight places.<o:p></o:p>Nickel Ashmeade produced something of a surprise in the men’s 200m as he defeated his 24-year-old contemporary and fellow Jamaican Warren Weir with a time of 20.13.<o:p></o:p>The taller, more powerful figure of Ashmeade, running in lane seven, held a couple of strides lead in the final straight as Weir crossed the line in 20.31.<o:p></o:p>USA’s 2013 world champion David Oliver finished comfortably clear of 2012 European champion Sergey Shubenkov in the 110m hurdles, clocking 13.23 to the Russian’s 13.38.<o:p></o:p>As expected, Valerie Adams, shot put’s world and Olympic champion, maintained her dominance in the event with a winning effort of 20.20m.<o:p></o:p>Adams put her heavy stamp on the shot put with her first effort, effectively securing her a 47th successive competition victory, a record that stretches back to August 2010.Ibarguen extends streak by leaps and boundsCaterine Ibarguen of Colombia doesn't have a winning streak quite as numerically impressive as Adams, with only 12 consecutive wins to her name, but she still remains unbeaten after nearly two years, with her last defeat coming in the 2012 Olympic final when she won the silver medal.Ibarguen won the triple jump in Doha with 14.43m, the 2013 world champion adding to the plethora of world leads and meeting records. Another fabled performer and Ibarguen's perennial rival, Ukraine’s former world champion Olga Saladukha, took second place with 14.32m<o:p></o:p>The men’s discus honours went to Poland’s Piotr Malachowski, the silver medallist at last year’s World Championships in Moscow. The 30-year-old Pole ensured maximum points with a superbly consistent series of throws, throwing 65.19m or better with each one, the best being a second-round effort of 66.72m.<o:p></o:p>India’s Vikas Gowda took second place with his second-round effort of 63.23m, ahead of Estonia’s 2008 Olympic champion Gerd Kanter, who had to settle for a best of 62.90m.<o:p></o:p>Christian Taylor, the Olympic triple jump champion, gave the long jump his best shot at the start of a season where he has said that he will be mixing things up a little to keep himself fresh and lessen stress on his joints as he looks ahead to three years of global championships.<o:p></o:p>While Taylor may be a specialist triple jumper, having begun his list of significant victories by winning the IAAF World Youth Championships title in that event back in 2007, he also took bronze at that same meeting in the long jump, in which his personal best stands at 8.19m from 2010.<o:p></o:p>The US all-rounder led the event here with a first-round effort of 7.95m, but was overtaken in the next round by Louis Tsatoumas of Greece who registered 8.06m.<o:p></o:p>By the end of the evening, two others had moved past to push Taylor out of the points, with Mexico’s Luis Alberto Rivera Morales registering 8.04m and the Netherland’s Ignisious Gaisah taking third place with 8.01m.<o:p></o:p>“I’m not unhappy though, it was a good performance, in fact one of my best since I was at college and doing more long jumping, and a lot of things went well,” said the reflective and erudite Taylor.<o:p></o:p>Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou of Greece took the honours in the women's pole vault after clearing 4.63m at her third attempt, the only competitor to scale that height. <o:p></o:p>Cuba's 2012 Olympic silver medallist and 2014 world indoor champion Yarisley Silva was second with 4.53m.<o:p></o:p>Mike Rowbottom for the IAAF<o:p></o:p>

Jamaica’s Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce earned an expected victory in the 100m at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha, crossing the line in 11.13 on Friday (9).

Fraser-Pryce made to work hard for 100m win in Doha – IAAF Diamond League

The qualifying distance was set at 8.05m and the first man to nail it was not one of the fancied pre-championship medal contenders but a man who instantly catapulted himself into local athletics folklore: Adrian Strzalkowski. Strzalkowski had not ventured beyond eight metres before but with his first-round effort, the 23-year-old Pole uncorked a stunning 8.18m.<o:p></o:p>It drew a huge roar from the home crowd in the Ergo Arena, and understandably so. It represented a national indoor record as well as a 22cm improvement for Strzalkowski, the 2013 Francophone Games champion.<o:p></o:p>Not until the third and final round did a second automatic qualifier emerge. Christian Reif, the 2010 European champion from Germany, uncorked an 8.13m, just two centimetres short of his indoor personal best.<o:p></o:p>With that, the floodgates opened somewhat. Greece’s Louis Tsatoumas jumped 8.10m then China’s Li Jinzhe and Sweden’s Michel Torneus leapt 8.08m.<o:p></o:p>The other three men in Saturday’s will include Russia’s world champion Aleksandr Menkov, who settled for an opening round of 8.04m and then declined to take another attempt,<o:p></o:p>Menkov heads the 2014 world indoor lists with 8.30m. Brazil’s defending champion Mauro Da Silva and Mexico’s world bronze medallist Luis Rivera complete the finalists.USA's Tyron Stewart and Zimbabwe's US-based Ngonidzashe Makusha have both jumped well beyond eight metres this year but that sort of form deserted them in Sopot and they failed to make the final.Simon Turnbull for the IAAF<o:p></o:p>

The qualifying distance was set at 8.05m and the first man to nail it was not one of the fancied pre-championship medal contenders but a man who instantly catapulted himself into local athletics folklore: Adrian Strzalkowski.

Report: men's long jump qualifying – Sopot 2014

Four days of athletics action at the XVII Mediterranean Games in the Turkish city of Mersin came to an end on Saturday (29), with the best marks including Greece’s Kostadinos Baniotis &nbsp;High Jump win with personal best of 2.34m.Baniotis, second at the last Mediterranean Games four years ago in Italy but who has often struggled to produce his best outdoors after failing to make the final at the last two Olympic Games and IAAF World Championships, went over the height on his second attempt before having three failures at a Greek record height of 2.37m. Italy’s Silvano Chesani was second with 2.28m. Louis Tsatoumas added to the Greek gold medal tally in the athletics events with a Long Jump win in 8.14m, a distance he reached in the first round. He was the only man to go over eight metres. There was another good Greek win in the women’s Triple Jump when Athanasia Perra won with a third round effort of 14.48m. Slovenia’s Snezana Rodic had all five of her valid attempts over 14 metres culminating in 14.36m, which secured her the silver medal.Italy’s 2013 European indoor champion Daniele Greco won the Triple Jump with his third round effort of 17.13m.Greece’s Dimítrios Tsiámis reached 17.00m in thre third round but, ahead in the jumping order, Greco passed his final three jumps after watching his rival unable to approach his distance.Italy’s former world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco took the Pole Vault title when he was the only man over 5.70m while Greece’s Stella-Iro Ledaki was likewise the only woman over 4.50m. Croatia’s London 2012 Olympic Games Discus champion Sandra Perkovic continued her 2013 unbeaten season when her fourth round effort flew out to 66.21m, to win by more than four metres.Ozbilen shines over the shorter distanceOn the track, arguably the top performer was Turkey’s Ilham Tanui Ozbilen, who scored a middle-distance double, winning firstly the 1500m in 3:35.09 and then the 800m on Saturday in a national record of 1:44.00. There was more Turkish delight in the Javelin as Fatih Avan won with 83.84m with Egypt’s Ihab El Rahman throwing a national record of 82.45m for the silver medal.Perhaps rivalling Ozbilen for the best performance on the track, Serbia's 2012 European Athletics Championships 400m Hurdles silver medallist Emir Bekric clocked a national record of 48.83 to win his specialist event.Morocco’s Siham Hilali was a convincing winner of the women’s 1500m in 4:04.06. Hilali’s compatriot Hayat Lambarki ran 55.27 to win the 400m Hurdles, holding off her fellow Moroccan Lamia El Habz who was second in 55.51 as both women recorded personal bests. &nbsp;Italy’s Marzia Caravelli took the 100m Hurdles in 12.98. Cyprus’ two victories came in the women’s events with Eleni Artymata taking the 200m in 23.18 into a light breeze and Nektaria Panagi winning the Long Jump with 6.51m.France’s Emmanuel Biron won the 100m in 10.22, just edging out Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev, who was second in 10.23. In the 200m, Greece’s Lykourgos-Stefanos Tsakounas clocked a personal best of 20.45 to leave Guliyev having to settle for his second silver medal by the same margin as his defeat in the 100m, just 0.01.Italy’s Matteo Galvan took the 400m in a personal best of 45.59. Turkey’s Polat Arikan Kemboi won the 10000m in 28:17.26, coming home almost 40 seconds clear of his nearest rival. Algeria’s 3000m Steeplechase winner Amar Benyahia clocked 8:14.05 for a national record while his team mate Amina Betiche took the women’s title over the barriers in 9:40.71.Spain’s one and only gold medal came on Saturday courtesy of the shot putter Borja Vivas who reached 19.99m.Italy convincingly topped the athletics medal table with 12 victories, including in the last two events as they took the honours in the men’s and women’s 4x400m relays in 3:04.61 and 3:32.44 respectively. Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Greek jumpers and Turkey's Ozbilen provide the athletics highlights at the Mediterranean Games 