In her first competition of the season, European high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh moved to the top of the 2023 world indoor list with an early season 2.00m clearance at the Demyanyuk Memorial in Lviv on Saturday (14) evening.
But her sparkling season’s debut got off to a shaky start. Mahuchikh, who cleared a world indoor U20 record of 2.01m at this competition in 2020, failed twice at her opening height at 1.86m but the Ukrainian avoided leaving the competition without a mark to her name by clearing 1.89m on her one and only attempt.
Mahuchikh returned to the competitive fray at 1.95m which she cleared on her first attempt to seal the victory from her compatriot Iryna Gerashchenko, the silver medallist behind Mahuchikh at the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Mahuchikh had the stage to herself and she went on to ameliorate the world lead with clearances at 1.97m and 2.00m before taking three good attempts at 2.03m, a height that looks comfortably within her range this indoor season.
On the road to Istanbul 2023, Mahuchikh confirmed her next two competitions will be in Cottbus (25 January) followed by the Karsten Warholm Invitational in Ulsteinvik (2 February).
Gerashchenko, who held the world lead previously at 1.96m, was second on this occasion with 1.93m with former world silver medallist Yuliya Levchenko third with 1.91m.
Hurske speeds to 7.90 60m hurdles in Tampere
Fourth at the last edition of the European Athletics Indoor Championships, Reetta Hurske opened her indoor season with a pair of fast times in the 60m hurdles in Tampere on Saturday (14).
The long-time Finnish international sped to a 7.95 clocking in the 60m hurdles heats before improving to 7.90 in the final. Her time eclipsed the Finnish indoor record by 0.01 and was briefly a world lead in the early weeks of the indoor season.
"Based on training, I knew I was in good shape. However, these two races were run in the middle of a training block. The actual start of the indoor season is at the end of January in Düsseldorf," said Hurske.
Elsewhere...
France's Thibaut Collet cleared a world lead of 5.81m at the National Pole Vault Summit in Reno, Nevada on Friday (13) for victory on countback ahead of Jacob Wooten from the United States.
European U18 heptathlon champion Jana Koscak was in prolific early season form in Zagreb this weekend.
Still only 16, Koscak cleared 1.90m in the high jump to break the Croatian indoor U18 record held by a certain Blanka Vlasic before an exceptionally close attempt at 1.93m, dislodging the bar only with her ankles.
Koscak also broke the Croatian indoor U18 long jump record with 6.15m.
World U20 100m finalist Oliwer Wdowik sped to a 6.60 lifetime best in the 60m in Rzeszow on Saturday to come within three-hundredths of the Polish indoor U23 record.
European indoor long jump bronze medallist Khaddi Sagnia also demonstrated some of her newfound speed in the 60m with a 7.25 clocking in Gothenburg on Saturday to move to fourth on the Swedish all-time list.
European bronze medallist Pal Haugen Lillefosse cleared 5.72m in the pole vault in Bergen on Sunday (15).
Fellow European bronze medallist Angelina Topic cleared 1.90m at the Belgrade City Championships on Saturday. Milica Gardasevic also leapt out to 6.51m to win the long jump.
Steven Mills for European Athletics