Thobias Montler in Belgrade (© Laszlo Zsigmond)
Thobias Montler is the ‘nearly man’ of indoor long jump. The 28-year-old from Sweden has earned three successive European indoor silver medals and a 2022 world indoor silver – all of them behind Miltiadis Tentoglou.
But at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting – the second Gold level fixture on the World Athletics Indoor Tour – on Wednesday (29), Montler turned the tables on the Greek long jumper to win with a fifth-round leap of 8.23m.
Competing in the city that hosted the 2022 World Indoor Championships – where Tentoglou took gold ahead of Montler – neither man led through the early rounds. Instead, Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Saraboyukov held the lead with his opening leap of 8.06m.
Tentoglou opened with 7.56m and improved to 7.83m in round three. Montler, meanwhile, only landed one valid jump – 7.97m – in the first four rounds.
The contest came alive in the fifth round with Tentoglou leaping 8.05m to move into second place, one centimetre behind Saraboyukov and one ahead of USA’s Isaac Grimes. Just moments later, Montler sailed out to 8.23m – the exact same distance he produced at the 2022 Belgrade Indoor Meeting – to take the lead. Grimes closed out the round with an 8.13m leap to move into second place.
Tentoglou, who has so often come from behind to produce a winning leap in the final round, this time had no response to Montler’s lead with his sixth effort, ending his series with 7.92m. With no other improvements from other jumpers, Montler held on to victory, while Tentoglou remained in fourth – the first time he has finished outside the top three in any competition since 2019.
Meeting records tumble in sprints
Two-time European indoor champion Nadine Visser produced her best ever season opener to win the women’s 60m hurdles.
The Dutch sprint hurdler breezed through the heats in 7.94, then went even quicker in the final, stopping the clock at 7.86 – just 0.09 shy of her own national record – to win ahead of Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska (7.91).
World indoor bronze medallist Zaynab Dosso impressed in the women’s 60m with two strong runs. The Italian sprinter won her heat in a meeting record of 7.08, winning comfortably from Australian teenager Torrie Lewis (7.22). The final was a lot closer but Dosso emerged victorious in 7.12 while Lewis was rewarded with an Australian record of 7.14.
The men’s 60m was almost as close. USA’s 2018 world indoor bronze medallist Ronnie Baker won in a meeting record of 6.53 from Raphael Boujo of the Netherlands (6.56).
World indoor finalist Attila Molnar got his 2025 campaign under way in superb fashion, smashing his own Hungarian indoor record to win the men’s 400m in 45.66, also a meeting record.
The 23-year-old got to the break first in his heat and was unchallenged for the remainder of the race, winning comfortably from compatriot Patrik Simon Enyingi, who clocked a PB of 46.27 in second place.
“This is an amazing start to the season,” said Molnar, now moves into the top 20 on the European indoor all-time list. “I’m grateful for the crowd here, they’re amazing. This is just the beginning.”
European silver medallist Angelina Topic, still a teenager until July, won the women’s high jump with 1.92m and went on to have some solid attempts at 1.97m, which would have equalled her own Serbian indoor record. 2022 European silver medallist Marija Vukovic was second with 1.90m.
Italian champion Eloisa Coiro timed her finish to perfection to win the women’s 800m in 2:01.98. Olympic finalist Prudence Sekgodiso, contesting her first ever indoor race, set the pace for the first three laps and looked to be on her way to victory. But coming off the final turn, 24-year-old Coiro strode past Sekgodiso to take the victory.
Anita Horvat came through to take second place in 2:02.03. Sekgodiso finished fourth but was rewarded with a South African indoor record of 2:02.30.
Ethiopian teenager Meseret Yeshaneh made an impressive indoor debut to win the women’s 3000m. The 2022 world U20 steeplechase bronze medallist tracked Belgium’s Jana van Lent for most of the race before kicking ahead with two laps to go, winning in 8:56.32.
Elsewhere, Morocco’s Anass Essayi won a scrappy 1500m in 3:37.56 and USA’s Roger Steen took the men’s shot put with 20.94m.
