It was a busy weekend of national championships ahead of next month’s IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland and here are some of the main stories from across Europe.
SPAIN
Ruth Beitia turns 37 on 1 April but once more she is the Spanish high jump champion and on top of the world.
With another brilliant performance in Madrid on Sunday, Beitia won the title by going over at 1.98m.
It is the best in the world this year and the height is a world best in the 35+ age group.
Age? It seems irrelevant almost to talk about this when Beitia’s name is mentioned.
Incredibly this summer, she will have the chance to win a hat-trick of gold medals at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam after her glory in Helsinki 2012 and Zurich 2014.
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But first it could be the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Portland in a fortnight, an event where Beitia, who achieved her 15th national indoor title in a row, has previously won a silver and two bronzes.
On Saturday in Madrid, Carlos Tobalina produced the best shot put of his life as he took his personal best indoors of 20.02m to 20.50m to triumph and in the process also beat his outdoor mark of 20.32m. European silevr medallist Borja Vivas (20.19m) having to settle for second place.
POLAND
A year ago Rafal Kownatke failed to reach the shot put final at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague but on Sunday in Torun, he really did make his mark.
Kownatke, 30, beat both European junior champion Konrad Bukowiecki and Tomasz Majewski, the double Olympic champion.
His victory came thanks to having a better second-best effort than Bukowiecki both men having achieved 20.37m.
It was a personal best for Kownatke and with his next longest 20.26m beating Bukowiecki’s 20.19m, he achieved a notable success as Michal Haratyk, who leads the European Athletics rankings with 21.35m, was fourth (19.81m).
The 60m saw personal best runs for both the winners, Remigiusz Olszewski (6.62) and Marika Popowicz (7.20), and Pawel Wojciechowski (5.72m) won the pole vault on countback from Robert Sobera, with European indoor bronze medallist Piotr Lisek (5.50m) in third.
NORWAY/ITALY
It was quite a weekend for Karsten Warholm who once more showed what a multi-talented youngster he is.
Now 20, he won the 400m at the Norwegian championships in Rud in a national record (46.31m) on Saturday and then on Sunday, took two more with victories in the 200m (21.04) and long jump (7.44m).
But there should be no surprise at his ability to move between events. In Eskilstuna last July, he won silver both in the 400m and the decathlon at the European Athletics Junior Championships.
Henrik Ingebrigtsen (3:42.31) got the better of brother Filip (3:42.61) to win the 1500m on Saturday before another success on Sunday in the 3000m (8:04.08). He was also second in the 800m (1:54.62), as winner Emil Oustad had the same time.
Alessia Trost, who was second a year ago at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague, won the high jump on the first day of the Italian championships in Ancona with 1.94m and 24 hours later, world No.1 Gianmarco Tamberi showed his fine form by winning the men’s event with 2.36m.
In the 3000m, there was victory in a personal best for double SPAR European Cross Country junior champion Yemaneberhan Crippa (7:57.25).
Büchler does it again
A brilliant indoor season literally reached new heights for Switzerland’s Nichole Büchler on Saturday when she broke the national pole vault record for the fourth time this year.
Once more Germany was the setting for Büchler as she triumphed at the 15th International Pole Vault Meeting in Bad Oeynhausen with 4.75m, a superb clearance for a woman whose indoor all-time best was 4.63m just six weeks ago.
It is less than fourth months until the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam and Büchler has created a brilliant base for herself as she works towards her bid for gold.
Belgium’s Louise Carton, the SPAR European Cross Country under-23 champion, won the senior women’s 4.5km race in 17:22 on Sunday at the CrossCup du Hainaut in Dourin as she beat Veerle Dejaeghere (17:36) and at the French Cross Country Championships in Le Mans, Clémence Calvin, the European 10,000m silver medalist, won over 7.4km (27:25).
On the home roads of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Dmytrenko, the 20km World Race Walking Cup champion, won over his best distance (1:21:31) at the Ukrainian Winter Walking Championships from Nazar Kovalenko (1:23:17) and Ivan Losev (1:23:32).
There are 38 meetings across Europe this week, including the 16th European Throwing Cup in Arad on Saturday and Sunday. All the information is at http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar/