Former world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko and European indoor champion Menno Vloon were among the winners at the Springer-Meeting in Cottbus in Germany on Wednesday (28).
Ukraine’s Levchenko took outright victory in the women’s high jump and Dutchman Vloon tied with Ernest John Obiena in the men’s pole vault at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting.
Levchenko beats German duo
In the women’s high jump, Levchenko produced a flawless card through to 1.94m, where she suffered her first failures. At that height, only Germany’s Imke Onnen was still in the competition. But the German had twice failed at 1.88m before clearing at the third time.
Onnen cleared 1.91m at the first attempt, but with three failures at 1.94m, she was eliminated.
Although victory was already assured on countback, Levchenko then thrilled the appreciative crowd with a third time clearance at 1.94m to add sheen to her victory.
The Ukrainian raised the bar further to 1.98m and had one failure, before two further failures at 2.00m.
Germany’s Bianca Stichling was third with a best of 1.88m.
Three way tussle in men's pole vault
In the men’s pole vault, Vloon, Obiena and twice world champion Sam Kendricks had perfect cards through to 5.77m. Vloon and Obiena got over at the second attempt, whilst USA’s Kendricks needed his full quota of three to survive.
But 5.84m proved a step too far for all three as they each failed with three attempts. Vloon and Obiena had one further attempt at 5.84m in a jump-off, but settled for a share of the spoils.