At the age of 37, home-based runner Noelie Yarigo won the women’s 800m at the Meeting de l’Eure in the French venue of Val de Reuil in 1:59.29 – one of four world leads for the season produced at the event, with one other being equalled.
Yarigo, who was followed home in the Salle Jesse Owens by Audrey Werro in a Swiss U20 record of 2:00.57, reached last year’s world semifinals competing for the country of her birth, Benin, for whom she ran a personal best of 1:59.12 at the Rio 2016 Olympics. However, as a French national, her time will also be considered a French record.
Burkina Faso's French-based Hugues Fabrice Zango also produced a 2023 world-leading performance in this World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting as he won the men’s triple jump with 17.48m, finishing ahead of two of the young Cuban talents who made such a huge impact last season. Zango, who won world silver last year after taking Olympic bronze in Tokyo, produced his best effort in the third round to displace early leader Lazaro Martinez, who finished second with 17.16m. Martinez’s compatriot Andy Diaz Hernandez made a huge final effort to take third place with a personal best of 17.09m.
A third world-lead came through Mohamed Katir, Spain’s European 1500m silver medallist and world 5000m bronze medallist, who won the men’s 1500m in 3:35.48.
The fourth world lead came in the penultimate women’s 3,000m, where Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji ran 8:33.44 in her debut at the distance to beat compatriot Sembo Almayew by four-tenthsd, with Germany’s Hanna Klein third in a personal best of 8:36.42.
As if that wasn’t impressive enough, she stopped a lap early and even sat down on the track thinking she had won before embarking on the last lap.
The final event, the men’s 60m hurdles, saw the season’s best time of 7.53 equalled by Michael Dickson of the United States, with French athletes Just Kwaou-Mathey and Pascal Martinot-Lagarde second and third in 7.60 and 7.63 respectively.
Ukraine’s 21-year-old world indoor high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh earned victory with a meeting record height of 1.95m, with her nearest four rivals, including compatriot Yuliya Levchenko, the 2017 world silver medallist, on 1.84m.
Alaysha Johnson of the United States won the 60m hurdles in her fastest time of the season so far, 7.82, bettering the 7.84 world lead she set earlier this year, although she now stands second in the list following the victory of Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska in 7.78 at the Lodz meeting. Finland’s Reetta Hurske was second in 7.87.
Leonardo Fabbri won the men’s shot put with 21.33m, moving to second in this season’s world list behind the 21.69m thrown by the Czech Republic’s Tomas Stanek at Kladno on January 28.
Sweden’s Fanny Roos, whose effort of 18.66m in the opening World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of the season at Karlsruhe on January 27 was only enough for fifth place, earned victory with 18.41m.
Finland’s European women’s high jump champion Wilma Murto earned a close victory on countback as she cleared 4.63m at her second attempt.
Canada’s 2018 Commonwealth champion Alysha Newman and China’s Xu Huiqin shared second place after both had managed 4.63m with their third and final attempts.
Meanwhile in the Czech Republic Morgan Lake underlined her podium prospects for next month’s European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul as she set an outright British record of 1.99m to win the specialist high jump meeting at Hustopece.
Lake, 25, had already equalled the 2015 national indoor record set by former world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson in clearing 1.97m, something Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashchenko, the only other jumper still in the competition, also managed.
But the Ukrainian could not match Lake’s final flourish, which bettered the outdoor national record of 1.98m set by Johnson-Thompson at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
It also bettered, comfortably, the Istanbul qualifying height of 1.96m.
For Lake, who came to international notice by winning the world junior heptathlon title in 2014 and the European junior high jump title a year later, it was a third national record following her successes at under-17 and under-20 level.
It was a hugely significant marker for an athlete who has endured some years of doubt and injury following her prodigious entry to the sport, and it underlined the wisdom of her decision to concentrate on the single event rather than the multi-event path.
After the disappointment of having to scratch from the Tokyo 2020 competition after qualifying for the final, this hugely talented athlete is certainly due a serious change of fortune…
It was the second year running that this World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver event has been won by a British woman, with Emily Borthwick taking the honours in 2022 with a best of 1.95m.
Third place in the 23rd edition of an event that boasts a great jumping surface, an exciting sound-and-music atmosphere and fervent support went to Kazakhstan’s 21-year-old Kristina Ovchinnikova with a personal best of 1.95m.
The men’s competition was won by New Zealand’s world bronze medallist and Commonwealth champion Hamish Kerr with 2.30m.
Kerr finished clear of five jumpers on 2.27, headed by Mexicans Edgar Rivera and Erik Portillo, with Australia’s 2018 Commonwealth champion Brandon Starc fourth.
At the IFAM Gent Indoor meeting at the Topsporthal Vlaanderen, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze event, Britain’s 2018 European 100m silver medallist Reece Prescod won the men’s 60m in 6.59 from Ryuichiro Sakai of Japan, who clocked 6.66.
Prescod’s compatriot Laviai Nielsen produced her fastest indoor 400m since 2017 with a winning time of 52.44.
Belgium’s Delphine Nkansa won a very close women’s 60m final as she and Nketia Seedo of The Netherlands clocked 7.21.