Kucherenko jumps world season leading 7.00m in Krasnodar

It was a weekend when a few small signs were shown for what could be in store as the indoor season hots up, leading towards the crescendo of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg at the start of March.

In Krasnodar, Russia's Olga Kucherenko, the silver medallist from the 2011 World Championships in Dageu, became the first woman in 2013 to hit the seven-metre mark for the long jump.

She hit 7.00m exactly, an indoor personal best and just the third time she has achieved this distance in her career.

When she finished second at the world championships, she did so with 6.77m as American Brittney Reese won with 6.82m, so it is looking good for Göteborg for Kucherenko, even at this stage.

Madrid was the setting for an excellent performance in the 60m as Angel David Rodriguez moved to the top of the European rankings as he ran 6.59.

It was a personal best, and just 0.01 outside of the national record which Venancio Jose set in 2001.

Rodriguez, 32, has been competing on the international scene for 15 years and even at this early stage he has improved on his performance from last winter when he ended the indoor season 10th on the European rankings with 6.61 as Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut led the way with 6.53.

In the Ukraine, Russian Aleksandr Shustov, the European high jump champion from Barcelona in 2010, won the Oleksiy Demyanyuk Memorial meeting on countback as he opened his indoor season with a clearance of 2.23m.

Ukrainian Viktor Shapoval finished second, also with 2.23m, with teammate Andriy Rubel third with 2.20m.

Vienna was the setting for Austrian Andreas Rapatz who started the indoor season with 1:47.87 in the 800m at Dusika Hall and with it achieved the qualifying standard for Göteborg.

Lithuanian Tomas Vitonis, whose best last summer was 7.75m, chose the last round of the long jump at the Katrinas Kauss International in Kuldiga to leap 8.03m, the first person to go over eight metres this year.

In Germany, Karsten Dilla's 5.65m in Leverkusen was enough for the Göteborg standard for the pole vault while in Sindelfingen, Verena Sailer, the European 100m champion in 2010, ran an impressive 7.20 over 60m to start her indoor season in style.

For the first time, the Reykjaví­k International Games had European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting status and Anita Hinriksdottir, 17, who was fourth at the World Junior Championships in Barcelona last summer, improved her national 800m indoor record to 2:04.79.

The best men's performance at the event also came in the 800m as German Kevin Stadler won in 1:50.67.