European champion Gianmarco Tamberi’s delight in breaking his own national high jump record in Monaco on Friday night has left him with an anxious wait about the Olympic Games after he then sustained an injury.
Italian Tamberi had to be taken away on a stretcher, having landed clutching his left ankle when he attempted to go over at 2.41m, after setting a new mark of 2.39m.
He will now be hoping he can recover in time for Rio, where the athletics’ programme begins on 12 August.
When he won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Amsterdam last week, clearing 2.32m for victory, he spoke of his plans to go higher and breaking 2.40m really has been such a target.
At the IAAF Diamond League meeting, he was true to his word about his summer intentions as after clearing 2.32m at the first go, he then went over at 2.37m, equalling his national record from last year.
The bar was raised to 2.39m. He failed twice but cleared it at the third attempt to take him into new territory. It was a magical moment for Tamberi, with Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko (2.37m) in second, but then on his second jump at 2.421m, he fell badly.
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With the form he is showing, Tamberi would probably be the favourite in Rio, if he recovers in time.
His performance was one of seven European-leading marks on the night, and the second national European record.
Tamberi was joined in that honour by Spain’s 110m hurdler Orlando Ortega who, having run 13.12 to break the mark in Doha in May, has now taken it down to 13.04.
France’s European champion Dimitri Bascou had a fine race in second (13.12) as he broke his pb with teammate Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (13.17) in third.
Great Britain’s Eilidh Doyle, the 2014 European champion, moved to the top of the European Athletics rankings with a powerful, dominating performance in the 400m hurdles which she won in a personal best of 54.09, beating American Cassandra Tate (54.63) and Denmark’s European champion Sara Slott Petersen (54.81).
Adam Kszczot brilliantly defended his men’s 800m title in Amsterdam and he ran a European best for the year here as he finished a narrow second in 1:44.49, just behind Kenya’s Alfred Kipketer (1:44.47), with fellow Pole Marcin Lewandowski, the European silver medallist, in third (1:44.59), while in the women’s 800m, Britain’s Lynsey Sharp also moved to the top of the lists in fifth in 1:57.75 as South African Caster Semenya (1:55.33) triumphed.
Britian’s Mo Farah, warming up for his bid to retain his Olympic 5000m and 10,000m titles, ran a European 2016 best of 3:31.74 as he finished fifth in the men's 1500m won by Kenyan Ronald Kwemoi (3:30.49), and in the women's 3000m, Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal was fourth in a European lead (8:39.47) behind Kenya’s Hellen Onsando Obiri (8:24.27).
Four other European champions had fine wins too.
Dutch star Dafne Schippers took the 100m in 10.94 from Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown (11.12), Greece’s Ekaterini Stefanidi won the pole vault (4.81m), Piotr Malachowski’s 65.57m brought victory in the discus and Belarusian Tatsiana Khaladovich followed her Amsterdam glory by taking the javelin with 65.62m.
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