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Kielbasinska regains world 400m lead with 51.10 at the Czech Indoor Gala

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Anna Kielbasinska’s dream start to the indoor season continued as she regained the world lead and also broke the Polish indoor 400m record with 51.10 at the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava on Thursday (3), a World Indoor Tour Silver meeting which saw five meeting records fall. 

After winning at the INDOOR Meeting in Karlsruhe on Friday night, Kielbasinska made it two wins from two races on the World Indoor Tour this season. 

The Pole drafted behind her training partner Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands who led at the bell through a customarily fast 23.57 before forging past the Dutchwoman to take not only the victory but also ownership of the national indoor record which was previously held by Justyna Swiety-Ersetic at 51.34. 

"I knew Lieke (Klaver) would be fast on the first lap, so it was my tactics to get behind her. I was pretty confident I would be faster in final lap," said Kielbasinska who is targeting the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade this March.

The depth in Polish 400m running is such that Kielbasinska was limited to an appearance in the 4x400m heats at the Tokyo Olympics but since then, the 31-year-old has become the fastest ever Pole outdoors since the legendary Irena Szewinska with a late season 50.38 and now the national record-holder indoors.

Behind Kielbasinska, Klaver was rewarded with a season’s best of 51.66. In the first of two 400m races, Germany’s Corinna Schwab improved her lifetime best to 51.68 to record the fastest time by a German indoors since Grit Breuer in 2003.

Montler denies Tentoglou in the sixth round

Reigning Olympic and European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou improved his meeting record of 8.04m to 8.10m in the fifth round of the long jump but this proved insufficient to deny his in-form rival Thobias Montler who also arrived fresh from victory in Karlsruhe.

In a reverse of the finishing order from the European Indoor Championships in Torun last March, Montler displaced Tentoglou with the very last jump of the competition with the Swede landing at 8.21m, just five centimetres shy of the world lead set by Simon Ehammer from Switzerland in Aubiere on Saturday.

Another meeting record was set by Iryna Zhuk who cleared 4.71m on her first attempt in the pole vault before three attempts at a prospective world lead of 4.76m. 

European indoor silver medallist Tina Sutej, who had previously held the meeting record at 4.70m, was second on this occasion with 4.61m with former world champion Yarisley Silva from Cuba third with 4.51m.

Brit Elliot Giles stepped up in distance to win the 1500m in another meeting record of 3:35.93, less than half-a-second shy of the world lead held by his British teammate Josh Kerr at 3:35.48.

Behind Giles, there were no fewer than three national indoor records: Ismael Debjani was second in a Belgian record of 3:36.38, Simas Bertasius was fourth in a Lithuanian record of 3:38.32 and Ilya Karnavukhau revised the Belarusian record to 3:38.47 in fifth.

Ahead of the DNA International match in Glasgow on Saturday, Molly Scott from Ireland took the biggest win of her career to date. She won the 60m in 7.25 to defeat European indoor champion Ajla Del Ponte from Switzerland by 0.01. 

And looking back into the annals of history, one big jubilee was celebrated. This year marks 45 years since Helena Fibingerova set the world indoor shot put record with 22.50m in Jablonec. To mark the occasion, she received a present in the form of a four-kilo ball of chocolate.

"I am glad that we are commemorating this anniversary in Ostrava, where I trained and now, there is a beautiful arena. Every year, the organisers show that they can organise great athletics here and I am happy about that," she said.

Full results here.




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