Christian Olsson winning the men's triple jump final (© Getty Images)
European champion Christian Olsson of Sweden, 23, set a Scandinavian and national record in the Triple Jump of 17.77 (1.6m/s), and later backed that up with a leap of 17.26m at the 55th Venizelia Track and Field meeting on Greece on Sunday 9 June.
Romania’s Marian Oprea had taken the lead in round one with 17.50, which was good enough for second place. NB. Olsson had jumped 17.80m indoors in 2002.
The Swede's mark was one of two world leading season performances established at the meeting, with Germany’s World and European Indoor champion Tim Lobinger, who has been out of sorts during his competitions in the last two weeks, pole vaulting back into the groove, clearing 5.85, an improvement of 4cm on the previous world lead he had held.
In a high class competition, European champion Alex Averbukh of Israel was second with 5.80m, while Lobinger’s compatriot Lars Borgeling, the European silver medallist, also cleared the same height as the Israeli but lost the runner’s up spot on count-back. Lobinger had finished in the bronze medal position behind these two athletes at the continental championships in Munich last summer, so this was a significant psychological victory for the 30 year-old.
Averbukh’s teammate Irina Lensk went one better than him and won her event, the women’s 100m Hurdles in a fast 12.82 seconds.
Brazil’s Maureen Higa Maggi, who leapt to 7.06 metres last week to lead the world’s rankings for 2003, had another solidly consistent Long Jump competition with a 6.95m (+0.8) winning jump, and another three marks over 6.84.
Full results - click below
