Alekna and Díaz excel at national championships

World record-holder Mykolas Alekna produced the standout performance during a busy weekend of national championships, throwing 72.65m in Palanga on Saturday (25).

The 23-year-old improved his season’s best to win the Lithuanian title with the best throw recorded outside Ramona for almost 20 years. The four-time global medallist returned to action last month, having had pectoral surgery earlier this year. He has won all three of his competitions this season, throwing beyond 70 metres in all of them.

Andy Díaz provided another highlight at the Italian Championships in Florence, soaring out to a world-leading national record of 17.87m in the opening round of the triple jump. The two-time world indoor champion backed up that performance with 17.81m in the third round. Simone Biasutti made a significant breakthrough behind him, improving his PB to 17.32m.

Leonardo Fabbri won the shot put with 22.43m ahead of Zane Weir’s 21.42m, while European U20 champion Erika Saraceni won the women’s triple jump with a PB of 14.41m.

Perez sets world lead in Malaga

World and Olympic champion Maria Perez improved the national 10,000m race walk record to a world-leading 42:12.93 at the Spanish Championships in Malaga.

At the Norwegian Championships in Trondheim, Sondre Guttormsen achieved an outdoor best of 6.00m in the pole vault. He cleared the height on his second attempt to become the latest member of the outdoor six-metre club.

World record-holder Karsten Warholm won the 400m hurdles in 47.14, while Henriette Jæger broke her own Norwegian 200m record with 22.55 (1.6m/s).

There were two major breakthroughs at the French Championships in Albi. Hilary Kpatcha moved to sixth on the 2026 world long jump list with a meeting record of 6.98m, just four centimetres shy of the PB she set last year.

Isabelle Black, meanwhile, took almost half a second off her 400m PB. She clocked a meeting record of 50.47 in the heats – moving to third on the French all-time list – and returned the following day to win the final in 50.58.

Simon Batz was one of the leading performers at the German Championships in Bochum-Wattenscheid, improving his long jump PB to 8.29m.

Shanice Craft achieved a season’s best of 66.18m to win the women’s discus, while Owen Ansah retained his 100m title in 10.00 (0.7m/s), just 0.02 shy of the German record he set earlier this season.

The Dutch men’s 100m title was also won in 10.00. Nsikak Ekpo took 0.16 off his PB in Hengelo, moving to second on the Dutch all-time list. Elsewhere in Hengelo, Ruben Rolvink threw 67.21m to win the men’s discus.

Werro demonstrates speed in Zurich

Current 800m world leader Audrey Werro demonstrated her speed at the Swiss Championships in Zurich, improving her 400m PB by 0.23 to win her heat in 50.80. That performance moved the 22-year-old to within 0.28 of Lea Sprunger’s Swiss record. Werro later breezed through the 800m heats in 2:06.11.

Géraldine Di Tizio-Frey also made a breakthrough in Zurich, improving to a European-leading 10.96 to win the women’s 100m.

Olympic bronze medallist Natalia Bukowiecka produced one of the weekend’s leading one-lap performances at the Polish Championships in Bialystok, running a season’s best of 50.02 to win the 400m.

Klaudia Kazimierska set a meeting record of 1:58.97 to win the women’s 800m, while Pia Skrzyszowska took the 100m hurdles title in 12.70 (-0.6m/s).

Tatjana Pinto broke the Portuguese 100m record in Lisbon, clocking 11.02 (1.8m/s) to take 0.07 off the previous national record.

World 400m hurdles leader Emma Zapletalová was another national record-breaker, winning the Slovak 200m title in 22.67 into a slight headwind in Banská Bystrica.

World champion Daniel Ståhl threw a season’s best of 69.85m to win the Swedish discus title in Uppsala. Vanessa Kamga took the women’s title with a meeting record of 64.26m.