Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen celebrates her 19th birthday next week and at the moment athletics is giving her the best presents she could wish for.
In December Klosterhalfen won gold in the junior race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Hyères and now she is the European Junior Indoor 1500m record-holder.
Her time of 4:08.38 in Karlsruhe on Saturday broke the mark of 4:10.57 set by Ukraine's Nelya Neporadna in 2003 and showed what a versatile athlete Klosterhalfen is.
She had not been the favourite in Hyères in a race featuring teammate Alina Reh, the 3000m and 5000m European junior champion, but Klosterhalfen came through to triumph in style.
As Ethiopia’s Axumawit Embaye triumphed with a world-lead with 4:08.22 in Germany, Klosterhalfen finished second with her record-breaking run.
After her exploits of last year, Dafne Schippers showed in Karlsruhe that she is in the mood again to make 2016 as spectacular as 2015.
The Dutch sprinter ran a world lead of 7.07 in the heats of the 60m before winning the final in 7.08m from American Barbara Pierre (7.09) and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith (7.11).
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This summer’s European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam will be quite an occasion for Schippers and it is an event that young Czech high jumper Michaela Hruba is also counting down to after a record-breaking weekend.
The 17-year-old world youth champion was in brilliant form in front of a crowd of 3500 at the Werk Arena in Trinec on Sunday as she cleared 1.94m, a national junior record.
She was also close at 1.96m with Britain’s Morgan Lake, the European junior champion, second with 1.92m having missed out twice at 1.94m and once at 1.96m.
Hruba praised the crowd in helping her reach the record mark and looked to the year ahead by saying: 'I am not planning for the World Indoors as I have three main goals in summer: World Juniors, Olympics and possibly European Championships.'
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After sharing the indoor national high jump record of 2.35m with Marco Fassinotti in Banska Bystrica last week, Gianmarco Tamberi jumped well again in the men’s event at this International High Jump Tour in Trinec. He went over at 2.33m and had three attempts at 2.36m.
At the La Coruna half marathon on Sunday, Sergio Sanchez won the men’s race in 64:22 and fellow Spaniard Paula Gonzalez took the women’s race in 74:55.
At the Moldovan Indoor Championships in Chisinau, Ivan Emilianov won the shot put with national record of 20.62m, and in the outdoor events, there was a national record of 74.21m for Zalina Marghieva in the hammer.
Sweden’s Andreas Otterling, who won long jump bronze at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague last March, leaped to 7.92m at the Raka Sparet meeting in Stockholm on Saturday and at the Botnia Games in Mustasaari, Kristina Makela equalled her Finnish triple jump indoor record with 14.20m.
And what a way for Switzerland’s Nicole Buchler to start her weekend on Friday when she improved her national pole vault record to 4.66m at the Stern Shopping Centre in Potdam.
There are 77 meetings across Europe this week, including six European Athletics Indoor Permit Meetings. All the information is at http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar/