European Athletics Indoor Permit Meetings took place in Belgium and Estonia on Saturday, with the biggest plaudits of the day going to the 2009 European indoor 60m hurdles champion Eline Berings.
At the IFAM Indoor meeting on home soil in Gent, Berings clocked a quick 7.98 to move up to third on the 2015 world indoor list and demonstrate that she should be in the battle for the medals at this year’s European Athletics Indoor Championships, which will be held in Prague in four weeks’ time.
De Topsporthal ontploft! @ElineBerings loopt een knaltijd. #IFAMIndoor pic.twitter.com/4iibWPow21
— Laurens Soenen (@LaurensSoenen) February 7, 2015
My training has been going very well and I knew that I was going to get a good time in Gent. I felt able to run under eight seconds. I know that I’m now the second best European this winter but I also know that other athletes are just starting to get into their stride and will be in good form by Prague. At the Euro Indoors, I want to run as well as possible and reduce my personal best (which stands at 7.92).
Norway´s 2013 European under-23 champion Isabelle Pedersen finished second in a lifetime best of 8.02.
However, there were victories for other Norwegian visitors to the Flanders city as Ezinne Okparaebo and Jaysuma Saidy Ndure won the women’s and men’s 60m finals in 7.24 and 6.62 respectively, the latter having also run 6.61 in his heat.
Switzerland’s Selina Buchel won the women’s 800m in 2:02.68 while Spain’s Aauri Lorena Bokesa took the 400m honours in 53.35.
Türkiye’s Halil Akkas came close to his best when winning the 3000m in 7:49.49 while Ireland’s Gerard O’Donnell improved dramatically in both the 60m hurdles heats and final, running 7.87 and then 7.73, having arrived in Gent with a previous best of 7.99.
Spain’s Eusebio Caceres, the long jump world leader, won his specialist event with 7.97m but only took two jumps.
The Borlée brothers’ attempts on the 500m world, or European, best came up slightly short.
Bidding to beat the times of US runner Ken Lowery, who holds the world best with 1:00.17, or Pawel Maslak’s European best of 1:00.36, former European 400m champion Kevin ran 1:01.06 and Jonathan was second in 1:01.28.
In the rarely-run event, the indoor 400m hurdles, Great Britain’s Niall Flannery won in a fast 50.64 to move up to sixth on the all-time list for this unusual discipline.
Germany’s Kai Kazmirek won the Indoor Combined Events Tallinn 2015 meeting in the Estonian capital with a final score of 6049 points.
The 2013 European U23 champion started off his competition in fine fashion on Friday with a personal best 60m in 7.01 and he kept up his high standard on the first day with a 2.08m indoor best in the high jump.
On Saturday, Kazimrek had a 8.06 60m hurdles, 5.10m pole vault and finished off by running the 1000m in 2:53.80 to move up to second on the 2015 European indoor list.
His compatriot Mathias Brugger improved to 5975 points to finish second with Estonia’s 2009 European indoor heptathlon champion Mikk Pahapill third with 5779.
In the women’s pentathlon, Poland’s Agnieszka Borowska improved her personal best by 101 points with a total of 4368, getting personal bests in the 60m hurdles, high jump and 800m. She was a convincing winner with Norway´s Ida Marcussen a distant second with 4093 points.