Two years ago in Bydgoszcz, Iryna Herashchenko won high jump silver at the European Athletics U23 Championships and now she finds herself on top of the world.
With a superb display at the Rehlingen Internationales Pfingstsportfest Meeting in Germany on Sunday (9), Herashchenko smashed her outdoor personal best mark by four centimetres to win in 1.99m – a world lead.
It was a superb display which saw her triumph by two clear heights with Germany’s Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch in second with 1.94m. Fifth at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships, Herashchenko could be in contention to match that performance on the global stage at the IAAF World Championships in Doha based on her early season form.
German javelin thrower Andreas Hofmann, the European silver medallist, was already the best in the world in 2019 having reached 89.40m but he stretched that mark even further with victory in Rehlingen. In the second round, Hofmann edged ever closer to the 90m-line with his winning throw hitting the turf at 89.65m to beat teammates Julian Weber (84.35m) and Bernhard Seifert (82.91m).
And in a top level discus competition, Austria’s Lukas Weisshaidinger, achieved a fine victory as his 67.49m was too good for the rest – the rest including Poland’s Piotr Malachowski, the double Olympic silver medalist, who was second with 66.34m and Germany’s Olympic champion Christoph Harting, who was fifth with 64.17m.
Schippers approaches sub-11 barrier over 100m in Hengelo
Dafne Schippers showed there is no place like home to produce her best performance of the season as she won the 100m at the FBK Games in Hengelo on Sunday in 11.06. Victory for the Dutch superstar came in her quickest time of the year as she beat Ecuador’s Angela Tenorio, second in 11.20, and Brazil’s Vitoria Cristina Rosa, third in 11.24.
Ahead lies a big few months for Schippers who will go to Doha looking to equal history. She will be there as the two-time 200m world champion and if she makes it three in a row, she will match the record held by Allyson Felix who won the title in 2005, 2007 and 2009.
That felt good, so happy with today’s win @FBKGamesHengelo! Thanks crowd for the great support today! pic.twitter.com/FkNLKRYPlJ
— Dafne Schippers (@dafneschippers) June 9, 2019
Schippers was one of three European winners in Hengelo. In the 110m hurdles, Spain’s Orlando Ortega won in 13.27 from South Africa’s Antonio Alkana and Brazil’s Gabriel Constantino, both in 13.41, while Sweden’s Erika Kinsey cleared 1.96m to win the high jump ahead of Bulgaria’s Mirela Demireva and Italy’s Alessia Trost on 1.91m.
But in the climax of the programme, European champion Sifan Hassan had to settle for second in the 5000m. After excellent performances in recent months over 10,000m and the half marathon, Hassan couldn’t muster up enough speed on the last lap to arrest the challenge of Kenya’s Margaret Kipkemboi who won in 14:37.22 to Hassan’s 14:38.54.
Sub-10 for Hughes in Kingston
European champion Zharnel Hughes had the beating of former world champion Yohan Blake from Jamaica on his home turf at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston on Saturday. Hughes stopped the clock at 9.97 to equal teammate Reece Prescod's European-leading time to defeat Blake by four-hundredths.
Reh runs a solo 31:19.87 over 10,000m
Alina Reh put down a brilliant marker for the long outdoor season by moving to fourth on the German all-time 10,000m list behind Kathrin Ullrich (31:03.62), Sabrina Mockenhaupt (31:14.21) and Ulrike Bruns (31:19.76), winning the national 10,000m title in Essen-Stoppenberg on Saturday (8).
Running solo and without pacemakers, Reh achieved a brilliant personal best as she won in 31:19.87. She lapped the entire field in the process including European U20 5000m champion Miriam Dattke who was a very distant second in 32:50.10.
Reh’s main target for the summer campaign is the Gavle 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships where she is aiming to compete in both the 5000m and 10,000m. Reh already has one U23 title to her credit from the 2017 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Samorin.
Reigning European 10,000m Cup champion Richard Ringer warmed up for his title defence by winning his national title in 28:28.89.
Thiam shows good form with Talence approaching
The Golden Spike meeting in Leiden proved golden for the Netherlands’ Lisanne Schol who improved her national record from 60.83m to 60.92m.
But the star attraction of the meeting was Belgium’s Olympic, world and European heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam who continued her build up to her first heptathlon of the season in a fortnight in Talence.
Thiam clocked 13.62 (-1.4) to win the 100m hurdles and cleared a wind-assisted 6.65m in the long jump along with two wind-legal jumps at 6.55m.
Two victories for Nafissatou Thiam in Leiden tonight with her first heptathlon of the season coming up in Talence in two weeks' time:
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 8, 2019
100m hurdles - 13.62 (-1.4)
Long jump - 6.65w (also 6.55m wind legal) pic.twitter.com/SBM4urYC8A
The combined events circuit travelled south to Arona in Tenerife where Austria’s Verena Preiner amassed a lifetime best score of 6472 points to take the win courtesy of an excellent second day culminating with an individual lifetime best of 2:08.83 in the 800m.
There was also a European win in the decathlon as Norway’s Martin Roe won with 8037 points.
Back-to-back wins in the pole vault for Bengtsson
It has been quite a few days for Swedish pole vaulter Angelica Bengtsson as she followed up her win and national record at the IAAF Diamond League in Rome on Thursday with another good victory at the Golden Roof Challenge city jumping meet in Innsbruck.
Bengtsson cleared a meeting record of 4.61m on a day when Ukrainian Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk also won the long jump with 6.74m.
Sopot hosted the Pier Pole Vault meeting and the home crowd saw a home one-two as Pawel Wojciechowski’s 5.71m was enough to beat Robert Sobera with 5.66m in the men’s event. Greece’s Elena Klaoudia Pollak won the women’s competition with 4.46m.