Anna Kielbasinska in action in Ostrava (© Eduard Erban)
Anna Kielbasinska broke the Polish indoor 400m record to win at the Czech Indoor Gala – a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting – in Ostrava on Thursday (3), running a world-leading 51.10.
The Olympic 4x400m silver medallist opened her season in Karlsruhe last week with 51.92, a time that elevated her to the top of the world list. Little more than 24 hours later, Canada’s Lauren Gale knocked the Pole off the top of the list with a 51.52 run in Colorado, but Kielbasinska returned to pole position with her victory in Ostrava.
The 400m in Ostrava was split into two sections. Kielbasinka won her race in 51.10 – taking 0.24 off Justyna Swiety-Ersetic’s Polish indoor record – to finish comfortably ahead of European indoor 4x400m champion Lieke Klave (51.66). Germany’s Corinna Schwab won the other race in 51.68. The top three women finished inside the previous meeting record of 51.96.
Elliot Giles, another winner in Karlsruhe last week, stepped up in distance to the 1500m in Ostrava and won in an indoor PB and meeting record of 3:35.93. The pacemaker led the field through 800m just inside 1:56, then Belgium’s Debjani Ismael assumed the leader’s position. But Giles kicked ahead on the final lap to finish almost half a second ahead of Debjani, who set a Belgian indoor record of 3:36.38.
Norway’s Ferdinand Kvan Edman was third (3:37.39) and there were national records for Lithuania’s Simas Bertasius (3:38.32) and Illai Karnavukhau of Belarus (3:38.47) in fourth and fifth.
The men’s long jump came alive in the final three rounds. Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou jumped into the lead in round four with 8.00m, then followed it with 8.15m in round five. USA’s JuVaughn Harrison finally found his rhythm in the sixth round and moved into second place with 7.98m, but in the final jump of the contest, Sweden’s early leader Thobias Montler regained first place with a season’s best and meeting record of 8.21m.
The fourth meeting record of the night came in the women’s pole vault, which was won by European indoor bronze medallist Iryna Zhuk. The Belarusian almost exited the competition at 4.61m, but she got over on her third attempt. She then cleared 4.71m on her first try to overtake Slovenia’s Tina Sutej, who bowed out with a best of 4.61m.
In the other field event of the meeting, Poland’s Michal Haratyk won the men’s shot put with 20.79m from Mesud Pezer of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Elsewhere, Helena Jiranova delighted the home supporters with an 8.03 win in the women’s 60m hurdles, while Ireland’s Molly Scott pulled off a surprise victory in the women’s 60m to defeat European indoor champion Ajla del Ponte, 7.25 to 7.26. Italy’s 2019 European U20 champion Edoardo Scotti set an indoor PB of 46.41 to win the men’s 400m, and Belgium’s Aurele Vandeputte took the men’s 800m in 1:47.41.
