The highlight in Ostrava on Tuesday came at the end of the meeting as Olympic finalist Bralon Taplin won a dramatic 300m in a world-leading 31.97 area record, missing the world best by just 0.09. He finished ahead of local star Pavel Maslak, who with 32.19 missed his European all-time best by 0.04.
"I knew I could come close to the world record," said Taplin, who achieved the fourth fastest ever indoor time.
The 400m hurdles world champion Zuzana Hejnova, racing her first 400m of the year, clocked a fast 51.96 ahead of Olympic silver medalist Sara Petersen's 52.87, but faster in race one was Poland's Justyna Swiety with 52.73.
In a high quality shot put competition, Poland's star Konrad Bukowiecki with a 21.15m indoor PB beat world and European champion David Storl with 20.97m and the 20.69m throw by home No.1 Tomas Stanek, who after his first throw did not continue due to a slight leg injury.
Andrew Fisher clocked Bahrain's record 6.57 in the 60m, just edging Kim Collins' 6.58 and Everton Clarke's 6.58.
The finish was very close in the women's race also as Jamaican Gayon Evans beat Venezuela's Andrea Purica as both were timed with 7.20. For Purica it was her second national record of the day after her 7.28 in the heats.
Ukrainian Hanna Plotitsyna showed top shape despite travelling a lot with a 7.99 hurdles win (equaled her PB) clearly over US star Jasmine Stowers' 8.05.
The 1500m had Ethiopian Axumawit Embaye winning in 4:06.68 ahead of Albania's record-holder Luiza Gega with 4:08.26 and junior Fantu Worku's personal best of 4:08.56.
World U20 champion Michaela Hruba fulfilled expectations with a 1.90m high jump, but it was the opposite for Jan Kudlicka in the pole vault (5.40m) as he got beaten by Greek talent and European U18 champion Emmanouil Karalis who improved to 5.60m and afterwards tried 5.70m.
Egyptian javelin thrower Ihab Abdelrahman has been suspended for two years after his B-sample tested positive for testosterone, informs insidethegames.biz.
"After waiting for six months, the Egyptian anti-doping agency officially informed me with my suspension for two years," Abdelrahman said in a statement on his official Facebook page on Monday.
Abdelrahman, who won world javelin silver in 2015, will appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport “within a week.” According to sport360.com, Abdelrahman’s B-sample was sent to Barcelona for further analysis.
Sweden has named a 14-member team for the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Star names on the team include world record-holder Susanna Kallur, reigning long jump champion Michel Torneus and high jumpers Sofie Skoog and Emma Green.
Notable absentees include Olympic 1500m finalist Meraf Bahta and world indoor under-20 pole vault record-holder Armand Duplantis.
At the Alekseyev Memorial meeting in St. Petersburg, Maksim Afonin won the shot put with 21.04m ahead of Aleksandr Lesnoy with 20.80m.
Mariya Kuchina cleared 1.96m in the high jump and Olga Mullina 4.50m in the pole vault ahead of junior Polina Knoroz's 4.40m.
In the men's high jump Aleksey Dmitrik and Dmitriy Semyonov achieved 2.24m, while Timur Morgunov and Dmitriy Zhelyabin cleared 5.70m in the pole vault.
Lyukman Adams won the triple jump with 16.70m and Kristina Sivkova clocked 7.20 in the 60m.
Anastasiya Nikolayeva topped the hurdles with a time of 8.04 and Anna Shchagina the mile with 4:32.18 ahead of Anastasiya Kalina's 4:35.29.
Renaud Lavillenie will miss the remainder of the indoor season due to an ongoing left thigh injury, informs L’Equipe.
The world record-holder will therefore miss his chance of winning a fifth successive European indoor pole vault title in Belgrade.
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