Greece's Filippidis on form at the Balkan Indoor Championships

Kostas Filippidis added three centimetres to his own Greek national pole vault indoor record when he cleared 5.75m at the Balkan Indoor Championships in Istanbul, the venue for next month's World Indoor Championships, on Saturday.

After twice equalling his former indoor best of 5.72m this winter, it was third time lucky for the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships silver medallist in his bids to go into new territory under cover.

Turkish terrain seems to suit Filippidis as he set his Greek outdoor record of 5.75m in Izmir back in 2005 which, at the time, was the second best vault ever by a junior.

Another Greek victory in the field events in Istanbul went to high jumper Dimitrios Hondroukokis, fifth at last year's World Championships, with 2.26m.

Serbia's Asmir Kolasinac won the men's shot put with 20.05 while the best performance in the men's track events came from Azerbaijan guest Hayle Ibrahimov, who won the 3000m in 7:42.39.

Bulgaria dominated the women's events with Inna Eftimova winning the 60m in 7.26, Vania Stambolova taking the 400m in 52.36 and the evergreen 37-year-old Venelina Veneva, the 2006 European Athletics Championships high jump silver medallist, winning her specialist event as the only woman over 1.93m.

Romania's Cristina Bujin won the triple jump with 14.04m while local star and 2010 European Athletics Championships 100m hurdles winner Nevin Yanit clocked a season's best of 8.16 to win the 60m hurdles.