European Indoor 400m silver medallist Lieke Klaver opened her season with a world leading 50.54 to triumph at the Czech Indoor Gala meeting in Ostrava on Tuesday (30).
The Dutch sprinter’s talent is sometimes overshadowed by that of training partner, multiple World and European gold medallist Femke Bol.
But at the latest World Athletics Indoor Tour gold event, Klaver has the spotlight to herself, and she laid down a solid marker for a major year ahead including the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships and the Paris Olympic Games.
"I am super happy, I was actually thinking it was quite easy," she smiled afterwards. Klaver simply accelerated away from the field, pouring on the pace, leaving European U23 silver medallist Henriette Jæger of Norway a distant second albeit in a national record of of 51.57.
Czechia's Lada Vondrova, who was part of her country's bronze medal-winning mixed relay team at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, was third in 51.57.
Tentoglou opens Olympic year with win
Olympic, World and European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou was not quite at his imperious best. But the Greek athlete still had plenty in hand to win the men’s long jump with a third round leap of 8.09m, as he eyes up another assault on major medals this year. Former European Indoor silver medallist Radek Juška of the Czechia was next best with 8.03m.
@: Adolf Horsinka
European 100m hurdles champion Pia Skrzyszkowská of Poland won a high quality women’s 60m hurdles in a meeting record of 7.82. Twice European indoor gold medallist Nadine Visser of the Netherlands was left in her wake in 7.93 with Ireland’s improving Sarah Lavin third in 7.93.
Explosive Swoboda wins again
The women’s 60m was decided from the gun. The three-time European indoor medallist and world leader Ewa Swoboda exploded from the start and ran clear to a meeting record 7.07.
Meanwhile, local hope Karolína Maňasová, co-holder of the Czech record, stumbled badly out of the blocks and was a forlorn eighth in 7.56. The improving Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg placed second in 7.17.
Joshua Hartmann saw his 2024 unbeaten run come to an end in the men’s 60m, where he finished 0.04 seconds behind winner Yoshihide Kiryu of Japan who won in 6.53.
The German athlete still had the satisfaction of a personal best of 6.54 in the heats, plus getting the better of European Indoor Champion Samuele Ceccarelli of Italy, who was seventh in 6.74 and European 100m bronze medallist Jeremiah Azu of Great Britain, fifth in 6.64.
Stanek second on home soil
Czech record-holder and European bronze medallist Tomáš Staněk gave the home crowd plenty to shout about.
He finished second in the men’s shot put with 21.33m, splitting NACAC champion Roger Steen of USA and former world indoor and outdoor champion Tom Walsh of New Zealand who landed bests of 21.38m and 21.17m respectively.
@: Ondrej Novak
The men’s 400m races saw some fine tussles between European athletes. In the first race, Olympic 400m hurdles semifinalist and home hero Vit Muller just got the better of Switzerland’s Lionel Spitz at the bell and maintained his advantage through to the finish winning by 0.31 with 46.26.
There was also a great tussle between European U23 bronze medallist Attila Molnár of Hungary and Matej Krsek, with the former edging clear in the finishing straight in 46.28 to the Czech’s 46.45.
World lead for Nader, European indoor U20 record for Thøgersen
Portugal’s Isaac Nader, a World finalist last year, was the class act in the men’s 1500m. Feeding off the pacemakers, he pulled away with three laps to go and never faltered to win in a world lead and Portuguese indoor record of 3:34.23 to move to tenth on the European indoor all-time list.
@: Adolf Horsinka
Sweden’s Samuel Pihlstrom emerged from the chasing pack to take second in a national record of 3:35.47 from France’s Romain Mornet in third in 3:37.22. There was also an Austrian indoor record for Raphael Pallitsch who broke the 39-year-old national record with 3:37.36 in fourth.
There was also a significant performance from European U20 cross country silver medallist Sofia Thøgersen from Denmark who was sixth in the mile in the European indoor U20 record of 4:29.31 to smash Ciara Mageean's previous mark of 4:38.81 which was set in 2011.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics