US long jumper Marquis Dendy (© Getty Images)
Multiple US collegiate champion Marquis Dendy was expected to challenge for medals at the World Championships in Beijing last year but the US jumper exited in the qualifying rounds of both the long jump and triple jump.
However, the 23-year-old is in the sort of form to atone for those disappointing performances in Portland. At the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville on Friday, Dendy improved Greg Rutherford’s world-leading mark in the long jump, firstly to 8.35m and then to 8.38m.
Brittney Reese also moved up to second on the world list behind Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova’s midweek world-leading mark of 6.84m with a season’s best of 6.81m in the fifth round.
Asafa Powell turns 34 at the end of the year but the Jamaican is still setting personal bests in the build-up to an anticipated fourth Olympic appearance in Rio this summer.
The former world 100m record-holder admittedly seldom competes indoors but Powell equalled his lifetime best of 6.50 in the 60m heats at the Ryan Invitational in Houston and then lowered his world-leading time to 6.49 in the semi-final before sitting out the final.
His training partner Natasha Morrison, who was seventh in the 100m final at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015, clocked 7.15 in the women’s 60m semi-finals on her indoor debut but also scratched from the final, which was won by British Virgin Islands’ Tahesia Harrigan in 7.21.
European silver medallist Lynsey Sharp ran a solo 800m at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston on Friday, breaking the tape in an indoor lifetime best of 2:00.30. This mark briefly stood as a world lead for a few hours until her time was eclipsed in Torun.
The track also played host to a high calibre mile with four women running faster than 4:30. Amanda Eccleston set an outright lifetime best of 4:26.88 to defeat Canadian international Nicole Sifuentes in 4:27.93 and Erin Donohue’s comeback after a lengthy hiatus gained pace with a season’s best of 4:29.07.
At the Fastrack National Invitational in New York on Friday, Trinidad and Tobago’s Olympic bronze medallist Lalonde Gordon won the 400m in 46.05, Robby Andrews took the 800m title in 1:47.50 and Patrick Tiernan won the 3000m in a personal best of 7:48.55.
World bronze medallist Alina Talay from Belarus confirmed she should be a medal contender at the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 next month by maintaining her winning streak in the 60m hurdles at the Gugl Indoor Meeting in Linz with victory in 7.97, which equalled her season’s best.
The 400m in the Austrian city was a high-calibre and entertaining race with 20-year-old Luka Janezic winning in 46.32 ahead Yavuz Can in 46.33; their times were Slovenian and Turkish indoor records respectively.
Jamal Wilson from The Bahamas also cleared a career best of 2.31m to win the high jump.
Steven Mills for the IAAF
