It was an impressive weekend for Europe’s athletes, with a series of world leads and national records - and fine victories in this early part of the outdoor season.
Greece staged the 3rd Athens Street Pole Vault, a European Athletics Special Premium meeting, but the winner on Saturday was not who the crowd might have expected it to be.
Home star Konstadinos Filippidis is the world indoor champion but he was beaten by Poland’s indoor record holder Piotr Lisek who started his summer in good style.
Lisek won with his second attempt at 5.64m - he then failed at 5.74m - as Filippidis finished second with 5.54m, beating Germany’s Carlo Paech on countback.
Polish pole vaulter Piotr Lisek makes an attempt during the Athens Street Pole Vault event at central Syntagma pic.twitter.com/Nx7lAgTjmN
— Tourej Ansari (@tourejansari) May 11, 2015
Back in Zurich last summer, the Letzigrund Stadium rocked to its rafters as Kariem Hussein soared home to win the 400m hurdles for Switzerland at the European Athletics Championships and it looks like it could be another fast year for him.
In Basel, Hussein started his season by dropping down to the 300m hurdles and produced a Swiss best of 35.54.
And Saturday was a good day for national records for his country because in Cham, Nathalie Meier threw 53.63m for a javelin all-time mark, her distance beating the 53.45m she had set at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn in 2011.
Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko is another European champion from Zurich who showed his form at the weekend.
The high jumper was competing in Kawasaki and by going over 2.37m on his second go, he landed a world lead. Such a feat was also achieved by his teammate Anna Mishchenko in the 1500m which she won in 4:02.47.
Slovakia’s Martina Hrasnova, who was second in Zurich, won the hammer with 74.27m while Hungary’s Anita Marton took the shot put with 18.94m.
French sprinters flexed their muscles just over a month away from the European Athletics Team Championships in Cheboksary.
At club meetings in Venissieux and Gagny respectively, Christophe Lemaitre opened his season with a European lead of 10.16 in the 100m and Jimmy Vicaut ran a fine 20.80 for the 200m.
Serbian shot-putter Asmir Kolasinac, the 2013 European Indoor champion who won silver in Prague, started his season with 20.73m to bank the qualifying standard for this summer’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
And while it is not unusual to see the name Harting at the top the discus rankings, it is when it is not Robert.
But Christoph, 24, the younger brother of Germany's Olympic and double European champion, is in that spot now as world-leader after taking his personal best of 64.99m to 67.53m as he won in Wiesbaden on Sunday.
There are 65 meetings in Europe this week. For full details, go to www.european-athletics.org/calendar/