Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith continued her flying start to 2023 at the Init Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe where she equalled the long-standing 60m meeting record with a victory in a British record and European-leading time of 7.04 at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting on Friday (27).
The Briton looked sharp from the outset, winning her hear in a personal best of 7.07 – following on from her 7.09 run at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting in Jablonec, Czech Republic last Saturday – to finish comfortably ahead of Switzerland’s world indoor champion Mujinga Kambundji.
Poland’s 2019 European indoor champion Ewa Swoboda won the other heat in a convincing 7.09 to set up an exciting clash in the final.And so it proved to be. Drawn in adjacent lanes, Asher-Smith matched Swoboda’s trademark rocket start, but then began to pull away as the Pole tightened up and faded slightly at the finish.
Asher-Smith stopped the clock in 7.04, not only equalling the meeting record set 27 years ago by Irina Privalova, but also taking 0.02 off the British record and she moved to equal-ninth on the European all-time list.
“I always love racing here, and I’m so happy to come away with a PB and national record,” said the 2018 triple European Athletics Championships gold medallist.
“I’ve had a really good winter, so I’ve been really excited to get back out here,” she added. “The crowd helped me, 100 per cent. The last time I was here [in 2021] it was in the middle of Covid and there was no crowd, so thank you to Germany for making this an incredible meet.”
Swoboda finished second in the final, matching her 7.09 from the heats. Kambundji was third in 7.11 and Britain’s Daryll Neita was fourth in 7.16.
Watch the highlights of yesterdays's @INDOOR_MEETING, the first leg of the #WorldIndoorTour ???? pic.twitter.com/cw8Wpb0rki
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) January 28, 2023
George Mills produced another British triumph in Karlsruhe when he ran away with the men’s 1500m.
The 23-year-old went to the front with two laps to go and proceeded to open up a clear gap over the rest of the field before winning in an indoor best and world-leading time of of 3:35.88 – just over half-a-second slower than his outdoor best of 3:35.30 and his second-fastest time ever – finishing more than a second ahead of Portugal’s Isaac Nader (3:37.29).
By contrast, to Mills’ emphatic victory, the men’s 60m hurdles had the closest finish of the night as just 0.002 separated eventual winner Enrique Llopis from fellow Spaniard Asier Martinez, the European champion.
Martinez appeared to be marginally ahead, but Llopis came through when it mattered to take the win in a photo finish with both men timed at 7.57. Poland’s Jakub Szymanski ran an indoor best of 7.57 to win his heat earlier in the evening but had to settle for third in 7.60 in the final.
With her first leap of the competition, two-time world indoor champion Ivana Vuleta effectively wrapped up the long jump contest.
Despite jumping off a short approach, the Serbian sailed out to 6.76m – a world-leading mark at this early stage of the season – which held up as the best mark of the day.
.@IvanaSpaNOv1c ???????? grabs the win in the women's long jump with a world-leading 6.76m ????#WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/0BJIzWagA2
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) January 27, 2023
In the women’s 800m, Slovenia’s Anita Horvat timed her finish to perfection to grab the lead in the final 30 metres and take victory in an indoor best of 2:00.44.
Another European win came came courtesy of Portugal’s reigning world and European indoor sot put champion Auriol Dongmo who produced a fourth-round effort of 18.90m, which was enough to clinch victory.
Denmark’s Benjamin Lobo Vedel won the men’s 400m in 46.45 from Spain’s Oscar Husillos who was second in 46.63.
In the men’s 3000m, Belgium’s Robin Hendrix improved his indoor best by more than six seconds when finishing second in a European-leading 7:40.53, just edged out by Ethiopian winner Abdisa Fayisa, to move within two seconds of the Belgian record and advertise his credentials as a medal contender at the Istanbul 2023 European Athletics Indoor Championships in five weeks’ time.
Full results can be found here.