Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen (© Getty Images)
A gun-to-tape 3000m victory by Konstanze Klosterhalfen and a 7.03 60m win by Mujinga Kambundji were among the highlights on what was, for many, the first day of a busy National Indoor Championships weekend.
At the German Indoor Championships in Dortmund on Saturday (18), 2019 world 5000m bronze medallist Klosterhalfen ran 8:34.89 to win the women’s 3000m title by two seconds ahead of Hanna Klein. The target for Klosterhalfen now is next month's European Indoor Championships in Istanbul.
"We'll see how far I can go in Istanbul," she said. "It's a new situation again and I'm looking forward to the challenge."
Aleksandar Askovic took the men’s 60m title in a PB of 6.56, while Gina Luckenkemper won the women’s final from Lisa Mayer, 7.17 to 7.21.
At the Swiss Indoor Championships in St. Gallen, world indoor champion Kambundji clocked 7.20 in the heats and 7.06 in the semifinals before improving again to 7.03 to win the women’s 60m final. She initially ran the final under protest following an alleged false start but her disqualification was later withdrawn and she was confirmed as the winner by 0.18 ahead of Sarah Atcho.
Pascal Mancini set a Swiss record of 6.58 to win the men’s 60m title. Angelica Moser cleared 4.50m to top the pole vault, while decathlete Simon Ehammer won the individual long jump with a leap of 7.98m.
A 4860-point pentathlon saw Adrianna Sulek improve her own national record by nine points at the Polish Indoor Championships in Torun. Her previous best of 4851 was set when she claimed world indoor silver in Belgrade last year. Ewa Swoboda ran 7.10 and Dominik Kopec 6.58 to win the 60m finals, while Konrad Bukowiecki won the men’s shot put with 21.55m.
Milica Gardasevic had the leap of her life to win the women’s long jump at the Serbian Indoor Championships in Belgrade. With an outright personal best of 6.90m, the 24-year-old won by 9cm ahead of two-time world indoor champion Ivana Vuleta, who withdrew after three rounds after experiencing some pain in her foot.
The 2017 world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko and Kateryna Tabashnyk both cleared 1.96m in the women’s high jump final at the Ukrainian Indoor Championships in Kyiv, Levchenko winning the title on countback.
Laeticia Bapte led a strong women’s 60m hurdles final at the French Indoor Championships in Aubiere, clocking 7.95 to win ahead of world indoor champion Cyrena Samba-Mayela in 7.98 and Judy Marie-Aimée Chalcou in 7.99. The 3000m titles were taken by Bastien Augusto (7:57.56) and Alice Finot (9:05.08).
Emmanouil Karalis cleared a national record of 5.86m to win the Greek men’s pole vault title in Pireaus, while Amalie Svabikova achieved the Czech women’s title with a 4.72m vault. Also in Ostrava, Tomas Stanek won the men’s shot put with a 21.43m throw.
Reece Prescod and Daryll Neita won the 60m titles at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham, clocking respective times of 6.54 and 7.17.
Maureen Koster ran an indoor PB of 4:07.98 to win the Dutch 1500m title in Apeldoorn. N'Ketia Seedo pipped Nadine Visser to the women’s 60m title, 7.18 to 7.22.
Jorge Urena scored 6173 points to win the heptathlon at the Spanish Indoor Championships in Madrid.
