European U20 bronze medallist Laura Muller, 19, stole the show from German teammate and reigning Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo as she won the long jump with a world leading 6.81m at the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting Dortmund, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting, on Saturday (20).
Her final round effort added a massive 30 centimetres to her previous best either indoors or outdoors. In the build-up to the meeting, the focus of attention was on Mihambo on her comeback from injury with her best mark of 6.65m in the third round yielding fourth in a high quality early season competition.
Former European U20 bronze medallist Mikaelle Assani of Germany was second with 6.72m and with Serbia's Milica Gardasevic third with 6.69m.
Breakthrough 1500m win for Georgia Bell
There was another notable breakthrough in the 1500m with Georgia Bell winning in a meeting record and early season world lead of 4:03.54.
A training partner of Keely Hodgkinson and also guided by Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter, some of the magic from the Olympic and world silver medallist over 800m had clearly rubbed off on her.
@: Matthias Dersch Fotografie
Committing early to a swift pace, she ran her way to a huge personal best, nearly three seconds faster than her lifetime best outdoors of 4:06.20 set last year.
Only fellow British athlete Revee Walcott-Nolan could live with her and running in Bell’s slipstream, she was also rewarded with an indoor personal best of 4:03.93 - less than one-tenth shy of her outright lifetime best of 4:03.84.
Larsson DQ’d after initial 60m victory
Sweden’s Henrik Larsson was retroactively disqualified after initially winning the men’s 60m in a would-be meeting record of 6.55.
Last year’s European indoor 60m bronze medallist was initially given the benefit of the doubt by the officials after an apparent false start and was allowed to take to the blocks for the second time of asking.
But after winning in 6.55, Larsson was later disqualified by the judges who claimed the Swede did indeed false start.
"I heard a sound and explained it to the referee. I had to run under protest. Unfortunately, they say I have to prove the sound I heard. I have no way to do that. But no matter what, I take with me that I actually ran in 6.55," said Larsson as quoted by Friidrott.se.
Germany’s Joshua Hartmann was elevated to winner in 6.59, leading a German 1-2 from Aleksandr Askovic in 6.63. Reigning European indoor champion Samuele Ceccarelli from Italy took third in 6.65.
@: Matthias Dersch Fotografie
The women’s 60m saw a blanket finish with the first four separated by just 0.02.
Former world U18 100m silver medallist Magdalena Stefanowicz from Poland judged her lunge best, edging the victory from German sprinter and bobsleigh international Alexandra Burghardt. Both athletes earned a new personal best with 7.22.
Now 40, Portugal’s Lorene Bazolo was third in 7.23, just 0.01 ahead of European U23 silver medallist Boglarka Takacs in fourth.
Sasma vaults to pole vault victory
Early season rust seemed to hamper the men’s pole vault competition with many athletes not quite finding their rhythm but Türkiye’s world finalist Ersu Sasma was least affected, clearing a solid 5.72m to land victory.
European bronze medallist Pål Haugen Lillefosse, European indoor silver medallist Emmanouil Karalis and Germans Oleg Zernikel and Torben Blech all tied for second with 5.50m.
Alice Mangione won the women’s 400m, setting an early season European lead of 52.82. Across three men’s 400m races, Serbia’s Bosko Kijanovic was quickest, posting a winning time of 46.99.
In the men’s 1500m, Germany’s 2017 European U23 champion Marius Probst took charge on the penultimate lap for a clear four second victory in 3:40.18.
Full results here.
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics