Reigning European indoor champion Jason Joseph from Switzerland demonstrated his indoor prowess again, preventing a home victory in the 60m hurdles at the Meeting de Paris Indoor, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver Meeting, on Sunday (11) evening.
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In front of a buoyant capacity crowd in the AccorArena, expectations were high after Just Kwaou-Mathey threatened the French 60m hurdles record last night with 7.43 in Lievin but with the advantage of fresher legs, Joseph took the plaudits in the last race of the evening in a season's best of 7.50 ahead of Kwaou-Mathey who closed quickly - but not quickly enough - in second in 7.53.
Wilhem Belocian, who was unbeaten this season prior to this evening, exploded from the blocks in his heat of the 60m hurdles and looked on course to better his season's best of 7.51 before clattering into the third hurdle while leading which ultimately knocked him out of the race.
Another notable absentee was multiple world and European medallist Pascal Martinot-Lagarde who has opted to miss the remainder of the indoor season, including the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Luxembourg’s Patrizia Van Der Weken also provided another of the highlights from a European standpoint, battling to victory in a closely-contested women’s 60m final in 7.15 by just 0.01 from Great Britain’s Daryll Neita with Switzerland’s Geraldine Frey third in 7.17.
Van Der Weken, who has improved her national record to 7.09 this year for victory at home at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting in Luxembourg, ran marginally faster in the 60m heats with 7.14.
Miltiadis Tentoglou was not at his very best but the Greek jumper, who has ownership of every major accolade and will defend his Olympic long jump title later this summer, found 8.06m sufficient for victory ahead of France's Tom Campagne who improved to 8.00m in the sixth round.
Spain’s Fatime Diame won the women’s long jump with 6.69m.
Gusin continues her winning streak in Hustopece
Greece’s Tatiana Gusin won her fourth consecutive World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting since the start of the year and remained unbeaten in 2024 when she claimed victory at the Hustopece high jump meeting in Czechia on Saturday (11).
Gusin cleared the same height as Ukraine's Yulia Chumachenko but won by virtue of fewer failures during the competition, with Gusin clearing her winning on her first attempt to the latter’s third before both women had three failures at 1.91m.
Notably in the 'B' competition, Hungary’s 16-year-old Lilianna Batori won with a personal best and U18 world lead of 1.87m.
On Tuesday, Batori will compete in the main competition at the famed Banska Bystrica high jump meeting across the border in Slovakia and have the chance to familiarise herself with the city which will stage the European Athletics U8 Championships in July, where she will likely start as favourite for gold in her specialist event.
In the men’s competition, Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk continued to impress and cleared 2.28m – just a week after winning his national indoor title with a personal best of 2.29m in Kyiv – but had to settle for third behind USA’s in-form Shelby McEwan and South Korea’s reigning world indoor champion Sanghyeok Woo, with both men clearing 2.33m - an equal world lead - but the verdict going to the American on the countback rules.
Steven Mills and Phil Minshull for European Athletics
