Orlann Ombissa-Dzangue might not have been given top billing ahead of the Meeting de Paris Indoor but the European 100m finalist was the sole French winner at the first European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting of the 2019 indoor season on Sunday (27) evening.
Ombissa-Dzangue whittled down her lifetime best to 7.15 in the 60m heats to qualify as fastest for the final. She duly won in 7.24 ahead of world indoor bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundji from Switzerland who was credited with the same time but the 27-year-old pulled up with a left hamstring injury which has put the remainder of her indoor season in doubt.
Her coach Guy Ontanon has already said Ombissa-Dzangue will miss the French Indoor Championships in Miramas from 16-17 February, a fortnight prior to the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships. She will undergo further tests on Wednesday.
Returning to competition after a three week-long training stint in Miami, Kevin Mayer produced good marks in the individual events. Competing in front of a near capacity crowd at the AccorHotel Arena, the world decathlon record-holder just missed his lifetime best of 7.79 in the 60m hurdles with a 7.81 clocking and also cleared 5.35m in the pole vault.
Le décathlonien @mayer_decathlon s'envole sur le concours à la perche ♂ #MeetingParis pic.twitter.com/v9usfkRZlb
— Le Sport by SFR (@LeSPORTbySFR) January 27, 2019
Mayer’s next competition will be the Meeting de l’Eure in Val-de-Reuil, another European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting, on 1 February.
Olympic 110m hurdles silver medallist Orlando Ortega won the 60m hurdles in 7.63 by 0.01 ahead of world indoor bronze medallist Aurel Manga. European 110m hurdles champion Pascal Martinot-Lagarde had to settle for fourth in 7.70 after 7.68 in the heats.
Victoire espagnole sur le 60m haies du #MeetingParis ! Ortega l'emporte ♂ pic.twitter.com/uZeDFTSNYf
— Le Sport by SFR (@LeSPORTbySFR) January 27, 2019
Croatian veteran Andrea Ivancevic edged out Hungary’s Luca Kozak in the women’s 60m hurdles in another close finish. Both were timed at 8.07.
There were also two world-leading marks at the Meeting de Paris Indoor. Two days after Armand Duplantis cleared 5.83m, Sam Kendricks added one centimetre to the Swede’s world-leading mark in Paris although the anticipated head-to-head with Renaud Lavillenie failed to materialise.
Lavillenie, who opened his season with a 5.82m clearance earlier this month, withdrew as a precaution after feeling some pain in his hamstring during warm-up.
“At the beginning of the warm-up, I was happy, I felt almost nothing in the knee. But on my first pole, I started to feel something in the hamstring of the same leg. I did not make the jump, I stretched, tried for a second time but felt the same discomfort,” Lavillenie told L’Equipe.
In the triple jump, Burkina Faso’s Hugues-Fabrice Zango went out to a world-leading and African record of 17.57m. Zango is based in France and is coached by world indoor record-holder Teddy Tamgho.