Dafne Schippers and Dimitri Bascou set the record books shaking with a series of magnificent performances in Berlin on Saturday on a memorable weekend for European athletes.
Schippers, the European 60m indoor champion, delivered a stunning double at the ISTAF meeting.
First in the heats she ran a world-leading 7.04 and then in the final took that down to a stunning 7.00 to match the Dutch record time Nelli Cooman set 30 years ago.
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It was the fastest by a European since in 1999 as Schippers once more demonstrated her breathtaking ability.
Cooman ran her 7.00 at the 1986 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Madrid. It remains the championship record but Schippers is gearing up for another spectacular year.
Bascou was the silver medallist in the 60m hurdles at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague last March and now he holds the French record and is second on the European all-time list after winning in 7.41.
It's all about the slightest margins in track and field and Bascou broke Ladji Doucoure’s French record from 2005 by 0.01, the last time a European ran so fast.
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Germany’s Alexandra Wester is having quite a winter in the long jump.
She started the year with a personal best of 6.59m and now it stands at 6.95m after she soared to the top of the world rankings by beating Britain’s Shara Proctor, the world silver medallist, who jumped a personal indoor best (6.91m).
A brilliant impact from Wester and an important return for her teammate Robert Harting as the Olympic and double European discus champion won with a final round 64.81m in his first competition since September 2014.
Tamberi’s record 2.38m
Going into the 17th Hustopece High Jump meeting on Saturday, the field learned of a world lead a few hours earlier from Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim in Malmö.
It proved inspiration enough on a night of sensational jumping in the Czech Republic, which ended with Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi once more showing that he has the class to go with the showmanship as he produced an outright Italian record.
The man who competes with half-a-beard won with 2.38m, just over a week after sharing the national indoor record with Marco Fassinotti when they both jumped 2.35m.
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This time he had a new rival as a star was born in Britain’s Chris Baker who cleared 2.30m, 2.34m and then 2.36m. His personal best was 2.28m prior to that evening.
Tamberi passed on 2.36m - after first-time clearances at 2.20m, 2.25m, 2.30m and 2.34m - before going over at 2.38m with his opening attempt.
Both Tamberi and Baker then had three goes at 2.40m and while it was not to be this time, the Italian knows it might not be too far away.
He said: 'I wrote on Facebook that after the 2.36m from Barshim in Malmö, I wanted to immediately regain the world lead. The flag of Italy is up there which is really good. I can say that 2.40m is the goal now.”
Double triumph for Sweden
Sweden’s men and women celebrated success in Vaxjo on Saturday at the Nordic Indoor Match.
The men's team, where Andreas Otterling recorded 8.01m in the long jump, won with 146 points from Norway (117), Finland (111) and a combined Denmark/Iceland side (85), while the women, with pole-vaulter Angelica Bengtsson clearing 4.66m, scored 145 over Finland (104.5), Denmark/Iceland (101.5) and Norway (100).
World indoor champion Konstadinos Filippidis won the pole vault with 5.70m at the Greek Indoor Championships in Athens, while at the David Hemery Invitational in Boston, Britain’s Lynsey Sharp, the 2012 European champion, ran an 800m indoor personal best (2:00.30).
At the CrossCup in Rotselaar on Sunday, Britain's Kate Avery, the four-times Eurocross medallist, won over 6.2km (20:17) from Belgium's Veerle Dejaeghere (20:33) and the hosts had success in the men's 9.7km as Jeroen D’Hoedt (28:02) beat countryman Steven Casteele (28:21).
And in Erfurt, Christopher Linke (18:44.32) produced a world-leading and personal best win to land the German indoor 5000m race walking title.
There are 91 meetings across Europe this week, including on Sunday, two European Athletics Indoor Area Permit Meetings and a European Athletics Road Area Permit race. All the information is at http://www.european-athletics.org/calendar/