Pablo Torrijos became the first Spaniard to surpass the 17 metre-line outdoors in the triple jump in Castellon on Wednesday (29) evening.
The strict lockdown measures imposed in Spain this spring were such that even elite athletes were largely confined to their homes but Torrijos produced arguably the greatest series of his career thus far in just his second competition of the outdoor season.
Torrijos bounded over the 17 metre-line in the fifth round with 17.07m before stretching out even further with his final jump, landing in the sand at 17.09m with the assistance of a 1.6 m/s tailwind. Both marks surpassed his previous Spanish outdoor record of 16.98m.
The 28-year-old has surpassed the 17 metre-line indoors as far back as 2015, most notably at the European Indoor Championships in Prague where he won silver behind Portugal’s Nelson Evora. Torrijos also finished at the top of the 2020 European indoor list with a national record of 17.18m set at the Spanish Indoor Championships.
Torrijos moves to fourth on the 2020 world list and second on the 2020 European list which is led by Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo who jumped 17.20m at the Inspiration Games on 9 July.
There was another significant performance from the hugely talented Salma Celeste Paralluelo who smashed the Spanish 300m hurdles record at the age of 16. Paralluelo clocked 41.97 to break the previous mark of 42.2 which had stood since 1981.
Paralluelo made her Spanish senior national debut last winter at the age of 15 when she competed in the 400m at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, just a few months after she was part of the title winning-team for Spain at the U17 World Cup in football.
European 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Fernando Carro won the 3000m flat in 7:53.62 and European indoor 800m finalist Mariano Garcia won the 1500m in 3:41.93.
In Valls on Wednesday (29), marathon specialist Marta Galimany set a Spanish one hour record of 17,210 metres while in-form Esther Guerrero clocked 2:37.89 over 1000m in Olot, the second fastest time in the world this year behind Konstanze Klosterhalfen's world lead of 2:37.05.
Elsewhere around Europe...
Sub-2:20 marathon runner Lonah Chemtai Salpeter dropped down in distance at the Israeli Championships in Tel Aviv on 27-28 July, winning titles in the 800m in 2:06.63 and the 1500m in 4:17.96. Lev Skorish also won the pole vault title with 5.50m.
On the first day of the Belarusian Championships in Minsk on Wednesday (29), joint world leader Aliona Dubitskaya won the shot put title with 19.19m. Aleksei Nichypar won the men’s shot put title with 20.42m. Both competitions were held away from the stadium in the city centre.
Only a few days after setting a world age-17 best of 71.34m in the hammer, Finland’s Silja Kosonen threw 67.11m in the hammer in Turku on Tuesday (28).
European silver medallist Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou cleared 4.40m in Kalamata on Wednesday (29). Alexandros-Viktor Peristéris also set a lifetime best of 8.06m in the long jump.
In his first competition of the season, Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa won the 1500m in Cles on Tuesday (28) in 3:39.70.
In Bergen on Wednesday (29), Narve Gilje Nordas won the 3000m in 7:50.57.