Germany’s Malaika Mihambo showed how well all elements of her long jump are coming together on the road to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships.
In the presence of watching European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, Mihambo broke her 60m personal best on three occasions before winning her main event at the German Indoor Championships in Leipzig the following day.
On Saturday, Lisa Marie Kwayie won the 60m title for the second year in a row, taking victory in 7.21, with Mihambo not far behind in 7.22. It was the long jumper’s third personal best of an impressive day as she ran 7.29 in the heats and 7.27 in the semifinal. Then on Sunday, Mihambo leaped to 6.77m to secure that title too.
Mihambo, however, wasn’t too pleased with her showing in the long jump final. 'It was a difficult competition for me,' she said. 'I was often too far from the board and found it difficult to find my rhythm.'
Multiple European and global medallist David Storl produced a season’s best of 20.58m to win the men’s shot put and Alina Kenzel, the European U23 champion, won the women’s shot put with 18.14m ahead of her fellow German Katharina Maisch (17.98m), who had finished second behind her in Gavle last summer.
Two national records set at Hungarian Indoor Championships
Balazs Vindics rewrote the record books at the Hungarian Indoor Championships in Budapest this weekend, winning the 800m in a national record of 1:46.20, the fourth best time by a European this winter.
His mark broke the previous best of 1:46.47 which Balazs Koranyi had set at the 1999 World Indoor Championships in Maebashi, Japan.
Luca Kozak also equalled her national indoor 60m hurdles record for the third time in her career with 7.97 and the top two in the women’s long jump both achieved personal bests, Anasztazia Nguyen winning with 6.58m from Petra Farkas with 6.56m. Farkas also won the 60m title in 7.45.
World indoor champion Anita Marton landed yet another national title, winning the shot put with 17.86m and British-based Valdo Szucs continued to chip away at his lifetime best in the 60m hurdles, winning in 7.56. On his return from surgery, former world bronze medallist Balazs Baji was second in 7.90.
Fabbri threatens national indoor record in Ancona
At the Italian Indoor Championships in Ancona, Leonardo Fabbri came close to surpassing his recently set national indoor record in the shot put. Less than a fortnight after breaking Alessandro Andrei’s long-standing mark with 21.59m, Fabbri launched the shot to 21.45m to secure the national indoor title by more than two metres.
Veteran Chiara Rosa won her 26th national title in the shot put with 16.56m and former European U20 champion Filippo Tortu began his season with victory in the 60m in 6.60. Elena Vallortigara returned to form with a 1.96m clearance in the high jump and Marco Fassinotti cleared 2.20m in the high jump to beat European indoor champion Gianmarco Tamberi on countback.
In Mogilev, former two-time European indoor 60m hurdles champion Alina Talay won the the 60m hurdles in 8.06 (8.04 in the heats) at the Belarusian Indoor Championships from Ruslana Rashkovan (8.18) and Sviatlana Parakhonka (8.19). Talay also finished second in the 60m final in 7.36 behind Kristsyna Tsimanouskaya in 7.25.
Other highlights included Aliona Dubitskaya winning the shot put with a European indoor leading mark of 18.85m and European indoor silver medallist Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova winning the long jump with 6.70m.
One of the standout athletes competing at the Austrian Indoor Championships was heptathlete Sarah Lagger. She won the shot put with a national U23 record of 14.98m and also won the long jump with 5.88m.