Croatia’s Filip Mihaljevic had a brilliant 2015 as he was crowned European under-23 shot put champion in Tallinn.
And it seems it is only onwards and upwards from there.
Competing at the Rod McCravy Invitational in Lexington, USA, Mihaljevic achieved a new standard indoors at the weekend.
Having achieved a personal best of 20.16m last winter, the 21-year-old has now stretched that to 20.69m in what will be another key year in his progression with the Amsterdam 2016 European Athletics Championships looming in July.
It was some roller-coaster for him in Tallinn as he won gold, with a foul followed by 18.60m, another foul, then 18.85m, then a foul again before an effort of 19.35m in the final round saw him overtake Luxembourg’s Bob Bertemes who had led with 19.29m.
On Sunday, Rouen staged the third leg of the Perche Elite Tour and Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe had his best ever day indoors, clearing 5.84m for a personal best and then attempting 5.91m, as he beat Greece’s world indoor pole vault champion Kostadinos Filippidis who ended on 5.77m and Kevin Menaldo on countback as the Frenchman achieved a lifetime indoor best.
[VIDEO src='1278454' align='right']
And psychologically for that trio, they all beat Olympic and triple European champion Renaud Lavillenie. The Frenchman started at 5.70m, which he cleared at the first attempt, before missing out three times at 5.84m.
Back in Prague, where he won silver at the European Athletics Indoor Championships last year, long jumper Radek Juska opened his season with 7.82m while the woman who won gold then began her winter with sprints. In Novi Sad, Serbia’s Ivana Spanovic ran 7.44 in the heats and 7.53 in the final as she warmed-up for the jumping year.
There are 47 meetings across Europe this week, including one European Athletics Permit event at the weekend. All the information is at http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar/.