Pascal Martinot-Lagarde en route to his victory at the Indoor Meeting de Paris (© KMSP/FFA)
Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam impressed in her season's debut at the Meeting de Paris Indoor in the French capital on Wednesday (8).
The 22-year-old Belgian won a triathlon event with 2861 ahead of Frenchwoman Antoinette Nana Djimou who tallied 2825. Nadine Broersen of the Netherlands was third with 2761.
Thiam opened the competition with a 6.32m effort in the long jump, followed by a 15.35m heave in the shot put, an overall lifetime best. She closed out the competition with an 8.45 run in the 60m hurdles, just 0.03 shy of her personal best.
"I hesitated to come because I haven't been doing any jump or strength training," Thiam told the Belgian daily Le Soir. "But in the end I'm glad I came. This shows that even with the lack of technical training, the general conditioning I did over the winter has paid off."
Thiam will compete next at the national championships on 18 February, after which she'll decide whether or not to contest next month's European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Martinot-Lagarde improves season's best to 7.51
There was a quality race in the men's 60m hurdles with Pascal Martinot-Lagarde edging Garfield Darien 7.51 to 7.54 to notch his first win of the indoor season.
"I've never run a final well this winter, including today," the two-time world indoor silver medallist said after clipping 0.02 from his season's best. "So I'm happy. I felt good, especially at the brawling level. I love it so much that I really want to go to Birmingham to rub elbows with (world leader) Andrew Pozzi. It's 7.44 – and it does not scare me!"
Both Martinot-Lagarde and Darien are on the slate at the Copernicus Cup, the IAAF World Indoor Tour event on Friday night in Torun, Poland.
The competition also included one of the final appearances by Ladji Doucoure who announced his retirement earlier this week at age 33. The 2005 world 110m hurdles champion clocked 8.25 in the heats after the start was slightly delayed due to the overwhelming reception Doucoure received from the crowd. He later returned to compete as a guest in the triathlon 60m hurdles where he clocked 8.05.
That event was won by Bastien Auzeil of France, the 2015 World University Games decathlon silver medallist, with 2461 after Kevin Mayer, the Olympic decathlon silver medallist, didn't finish the 60m hurdles race.
Mayer reached 7.17m in the long jump and 15.14m in the shot put before a technical miscue kept him from clearing the first barrier.
Auzeil produced marks of 6.75m in the long jump, 14.91m in the shot put and 8.24 in the 60m hurdles.
Elsewhere, Christina Manning won the women's 60m hurdles in 7.90 ahead of Jackie Coward and Isabelle Pedersen who clocked 8.02 and 8.03 respectively.
Jamaican Gayon Evans won the women's 60m in 7.17 ahead of Ukraine's Olesya Povh who clocked 7.22.
Yunier Perez of Cuba was the winner of the men's event in 6.54, ahead of Jamaican Everton Clarke' 6.57 and Mike Rodgers of the US who clocked 6.62. Pre-race favourite Kim Collins was disqualified for a false start after registering a 6.58 in the heats.
Kevin Menaldo won the pole vault at 5.72m and Godfrey Mokoena took the long jump with 7.95m.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
