European indoor champion Bozhidar Saraboyukov from Bulgaria amassed another exceptional series in the long jump at the Balkan Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Saturday (21).
Saraboyukov, who holds the world lead at 8.45m, flew out to 8.42m in the last round for a commanding victory over two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou from Greece with 8.14m.
However, all five of Saraboyukov’s valid efforts would have sufficed for victory. His series was: 8.28m, 8.39m, 8.23m, 8.23m x, 8.42m.
Ivana Spanovic also produced a clutch effort in the sixth round in the triple jump to provide a popular victory in front of her home fans in Belgrade.
With one round remaining, Spanovic was trailing Romania’s Elena Andreea Talos who led with 13.69m but the Serbian veteran showed her mettle under pressure, surpassing the 14 metre-barrier with her final jump with 14.07m to move from third to first.
Iliev improves Bulgarian 60m record to 6.53
Having recently broken the 48-year-old Bulgarian indoor 60m record, Hristo Iliev lowered the record once again to 6.53 to win the 60m ahead of Anej Curin Prapotnik who won silver in a Slovenian record of 6.57.
Austria’s Isabel Posch won the women’s 60m title in 7.29 while 2019 European indoor champion Milan Trajkovic from Cyprus won the men’s 60m hurdles in 7.71.
Other highlights included Greece’s Ariadni Adamapoulou winning the pole vault with a 4.52m clearance and Slovenia’s Nina Vukovic winning the 800m in 2:01.70.
Türkiye topped the medal table with four gold medals and 16 overall ahead of Bulgaria and Croatia who both won three gold medals apiece.
In total, 15 countries won medals at the one-day championships which was officially opened by Balkan Athletics President Slobodan Brankovic and European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov who attended the event as a special guest.
Full results here
