European indoor silver medallist Larissa Iapichino's first round jump of 6.68m stood the test of time in the long jump at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting, on Tuesday (13) evening.
In front of a crowd which included reigning world and European champion Ivana Spanovic who won't be in action this indoor season, Iapichino's opening round jump was also a season's best as she was rewarded with victory over a strong field including Serbia's Milica Gardasevic (6.53m) and Hungary's Diana Lesti (6.50m) in second and third respectively.
Iapichino is targeting the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow from 1-3 March before her attention turns to a big outdoor season which will include a home European Athletics Championships in Rome from 7-12 June.
By contrast, the positions in the men's long jump competition shifted significantly in the sixth round and much to the delight of the home fans, the outcome yielded an unexpected Serbian one-two.
The bronze medallist at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow 2019, Strahinja Jovancevic soared into the lead from fourth with his final round mark of 7.87m to displace world finalist Jeswin Aldred from India who led courtesy of a fourth round jump of 7.83m.
And Jovancevic's compatriot Lazar Anic joined the Serbian party by improving from 7.77m to 7.83m with the last jump of the final to move into second on countback.
From an international standpoint, the best performance came from New Zealand's Tom Walsh who threatened the 22 metre-mark in the shot put with 21.91m to defeat two of Europe's leading shot putters.
Bosnia & Herzegovina's Mesud Pezer threatened his national record with his sixth round throw of 21.42m, the second best mark of his career, to solidify his second-place position with reigning European outdoor champion Filip Mihaljevic from Croatia third with 21.18m.
Another fast 400m for Miklos
Former world U20 silver medallist Andrea Miklos from Romania recorded her third successive sub-52 second 400m clocking for victory in the Serbian capital.
Miklos controlled her 400m heat - the third of three 400m races - and won in a gun-to-tape 51.86 to displace Germany's Alica Schmidt who had clocked 53.44 to win the previous race.
Switzerland's Lionel Spitz was briefly shunted into lane three to dodge traffic on the second lap of the 400m but the European U23 silver medallist battled back to win his heat in 47.03, the fastest time across the three heats ahead of Türkiye's Ilyas Canakci who set the standard with 47.19 in the first race.
European U20 110m hurdles champion Enzo Diessl from Austria, 19, adjusted to the senior height hurdles in the 60m hurdles without any visible difficulties with victory in 7.72 while Hungary's Greta Kerekes won the women's 60m hurdles final after three call backs in 8.02 ahead of Italy's Veronica Besana in a 8.05 PB.
In the men's 1500m, South Africa's Ryan Mphahlele took the victory in 3:37.79 ahead of Yervand Mkrtchyan whose time of 3:38.12 was an outright Armenian record by a full second, improving his previous mark of 3:39.35 set at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest.
Steven Mills for European Athletics