German sprinters showed good late season form at the famous ISTAF meeting in Berlin, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting, held in the city’s iconic Olympic Stadium on Sunday (3) afternoon with 30,000 spectators in attendance.
Jean-Paul Bredau became the first German in more than 20 years to break the 45 second-barrier in the 400m with victory in a lifetime best of 44.96 - also an Olympic qualifying time - to defeat Manuel Sanders who also improved to 45.05.
In the 400m hurdles, world finalist Joshua Abuaku improved his lifetime best from 48.32 to 48.13 for victory ahead of Estonia’s Rasmus Magi (48.31) and teammate Emil Agyekum who also came away with a lifetime best of 48.47.
“The fact that I can now run at the front here is a lifelong dream that has come true. I have goosebumps because it started here in 2009. I sat in the audience with my mother at the World Championships when Usain Bolt set the world record. I'll never forget that. I told her that I would like to run at the front there at some point,” said Abuaku as quoted by Leichtathletik.de.
With the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships the next big outdoor event on the calendar, Joshua Hartmann demonstrated his medal-winning abilities by winning the 200m in 20.14 despite slowing in the late stages in celebration.
“It feels very good to prove to everyone that I can do it. I received a lot of criticism after the World Cup, which was justified because I didn't do a good job there. That's why I'm even more pleased to have come back with two very good performances in Zurich and here,” said Hartmann who broke the German record earlier this season with 20.02.
Elsewhere, European U23 silver medallist Henriette Jaeger won the 400m in a Norwegian record of 51.03 and Brit George Mills won the 1500m in 3:34.51 with a sub-54 second last lap.
From a non-European perspective, the highlights were Valarie Allman’s world lead of 70.47m in the discus and Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey just missing the world 5000m record with 14:08.79.
World champions Mahuchikh and Vuleta win in Xiamen
Newly crowned world champions Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Ivana Vuleta highlighted the European interest in the inaugural Xiamen Diamond League on Saturday (2), the first significant athletics event to be held in China since the coronavirus pandemic.
Mahuchikh matched the world lead in the high jump with a first-time clearance at 2.02m, her 40th 2.00m-plus clearance of her career, while Vuleta won the long jump with 6.88m.
In the discus, European champion Sandra Perkovic rebounded from a fifth-place finish at the World Athletics Championships with a European lead of 67.32m to finish second in the discus behind home favourite Feng Bin who prised the victory from the Croatian in the sixth round with 67.41m.
Sweden edge out Finland in historic Finnkampen match
Both the men's and women's matches at the Finnkampen came down to the wire in Stockholm with the hosts winning both matches by the narrowest of margins.
Sweden and Finland were tied on 227 points in the men's match with the Swedes winning the title by virtue of more individual victories while Sweden eked out a narrow victory over Finland in the women's competition, 228.5 to 225.5 points.
Hosts Sweden were aided by victories from Olympic champions Armand Duplantis in the pole vault with 5.65m and Daniel Stahl with 66.44m in the discus. Maja Askag also produced victories in the long jump (6.55m) and triple jump (14.27m) and Sarah Lahti also doubled up successfully with victories and event records in the 5000m (15:14.09) and road 10km (32:32).
Finnish highlights included Lassi Etelatelo winning the javelin with 83.42m and Krista Tervo leading a one-two in the women's hammer from Silja Kosonen, 73.09m to 72.98m.