Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis made a victorious debut to his 2026 season, clearing 5.93m for victory at the Orlen Cup in Lodz, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, on Sunday (25) evening.
Karalis won the competition by virtue of a first-time clearance at 5.70m before clearing 5.93m on his third attempt, and with plenty of room to spare between himself and the crossbar. Karalis took one aborted attempt at 6.07m before signalling his retirement from the competition by acknowledging the appreciative and knowledgeable crowd in the Atlas Arena.
The joint European indoor champion and world outdoor silver medallist behind world record-holder Armand Duplantis is planning a busy indoor season ahead of a return trip to Poland for the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy-Pomorze from 20-22 March.
His next competition will be the Perch’Xtrem in Caen, an event which will be streamed live by European Athletics, on 31 January.
Angelina Topic also impressed on her season’s debut in the high jump. The European indoor silver medallist cleared five successive heights between 1.84m and 1.96m on her first attempts before raising the bar to 1.98m.
After two failures, the bar just stayed in place on her third attempt as Topic successfully cleared 1.98m despite clipping the bar with her calves. In doing so, Topic equalled her lifetime best as well as her Serbian record.
Home sprint wins for Szymanski, Skrzyszowska and Wdowik
European indoor champion Jakub Szymanski won the 60m hurdles at this meeting for the second successive year, a victory which began a series of Polish victories in the sprint events.
Szymanski didn’t threaten his Polish record of 7.39 which he set on this track last year but he still stopped the clock at a fast 7.51 for victory over 19-year-old Cuban Kendry Menendez (7.56) and fellow Pole Damian Czykier (7.57).
Fellow sprint hurdles specialist Pia Skrzyszowska was in winning form but this time in the 60m flat.
Drawn side-by-side in the final, Skrzyszowska ran down in-form Czech Karolina Manasova - who clocked a national record of 7.05 in Ostrava last week - in the last 15 metres for victory in 7.18 by two-hundredths before Oliwer Wdowik made it a Polish double by winning the men's 60m in a lifetime best of 6.59.
With Skrzyszowska opting for some early season speed work, Slovenia’s Nika Glojnaric won the women’s 60m hurdles in a lifetime best of 8.03.
