22nd February 2013 10:27
At the XL Galan meeting in Stockholm, the Swedish crowds were given a taste of what they might expect from their home athletes from March 1 with brilliant performances from Michel Torneus, once again, and Abeba Aregawi.
It is proving to be a fabulous few days for long jumper Torneus.
He had moved to second in the European Athletics rankings with a leap of 8.15m at the weekend at the national championships and now he took his mark even further.
With a superb 8.20m, Torneus broke the national record on Thursday night and will be determined to carry on this outstanding run of jumping when the Championships start.
Russian Aleksandr Menkov is the only athlete to have jumped further in 2013, by a mere two centimetres, so it could be a brilliant event in Göteborg.
In a top-class meeting, Torneus beat South Africa's Khotso Mokoena, who was second with 8.15m, and Li Jinzhe, of China, with 8.11m.
These European Athletics Indoor Championships will be the first major competition in Swedish colours for middle-distance runner Aregawi - and she could take some stopping in the 1500m.
Aregawi soared to the top of the European Athletics rankings as she won the event here in 3:58.40, the quickest time in 2013 by over seven seconds and just 0.12 outside the world indoor record held by Yelena Soboleva of Russia.
Another performance such as this one will bring gold for Aregawi as she beat Ethiopian Axumawit Embaye, who was second in 4:09.11 with Moroccan Rababe Arafi third in 4:09.36.
As Ethiopia's World indoor 1500m champion Genzebe Dibaba won the 3000m 8:26.57, the best time in the world this year, there were great runs behind her from European athletes breaking their personal best - with Britain's Eilish McColgan a superb second in 8:49.31 and Ireland's SPAR European Cross Country champion Fionualla Britton fifth in 8:54.37.
As Djibouti's Ayanleh Suleiman ran a best in the world 2:17.05 in the 1000m, Poland's Marcin Lewandowski broke the national record with 2:17.77 in second with Britain's Andrew Osagie third in 2:18.78 ahead of Austrian Andreas Vojta, whose 2:19.20 was also a national record.
Pavel Maslak, the European outdoor champion from the Czech Republic, won the 400m in a fine 46.34 while the women's 60m saw the record books re-written.
Jamaica's double olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce triumphed in a flying 7.04 with the Ukraine's Mariya Ryemyen second in 7.17 and France's Myriam Soumare third in 7.22. But it was in fourth where the crowd had something else to celebrate as Sweden's 15-year-old Irene Ekelund improved the national record to 7.32.
Belgium's Tia Hellebaut, the 2008 Olympic champion, won the high jump as the only athlete to clear 1.95m.
Click here for complete results.