Slovenia’s European pole vault bronze medallist Tina Sutej produced the performance of day at the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava as she won in a national record of 4.82m which elevated her to seventh on the European all-time indoor list.
The 34-year-old, who made the podium in Munich last summer despite having her hand bandaged after it was spiked during the warm-up - an injury that required stitches after the final - had earlier won the contest at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting with a first-time clearance of 4.62m and concluded her competition with three unsuccessful attempts at 4.86m.
Second place in the Atleticka Hala Ostrava went to home vaulter, and 2018 World U20 champion, Amalie Svabikova with an indoor personal best of 4.57m.
Seventh on the European indoor all-time list! ????
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) February 2, 2023
Tina Sutej ???????? clears a world leading 4.82m at the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava. ????
That clearance is also an outright Slovenian record! ✨#WorldIndoorTour pic.twitter.com/KqGYHPa573
The meeting, already a permanent fixture in the World Athletics Indoor Tour, took on Silver status for the first time this year and results confirmed its rising quality.
"We are already in the seventh year of this meeting, so we can talk about a certain tradition,” said Libor Varhaník, chairman of the Czech athletics federation and a European Athletics Vice President, on the eve of competition.
Arguably the best race on the track was the men's mile which saw Serbia's Elzan Bibic in a meeting record and national record of 3:55.90, the 2019 European U23 1500m bronze medallist's first ever race over the imperial distance.
Behind Bibic, Austria's Raphael Pallitsch ran a personal best of 3:57.22 with Emil Danielsson third in a Swedish record of 3:57.28 and local runner Filip Sasinek finishing off the podium but still running a Czech national record of 3:57.62.
Great Britain’s 2022 European 100m bronze medallist Jeremiah Azu maintained his swift start to the season as he won the men’s 60m final in a season’s best of 6.58, just 0.02 shy of his personal best.
The 21-year-old from Cardiff, who last year clocked a wind-assisted 9.90, also won his semi-final in 6.60, the same time he clocked to win in Dusseldorf last weekend.
The men’s 200m was won in a meeting record of 20.64 by Cuba’s Reynier Mena. Behind him, Czech Republic's Jan Jirka finished second in 20.91 and Slovak Republic's 2019 European indoor 60m champion Jan Volko had a rare outing over the longer sprint - having won the national 60m race in 6.71 about four hours earlier - but came home third in a national record of 20.97.
World silver medallist Alaysha Johnson of the United States won the 60m hurdles in 7.87 but double European indoor champion Nadine Visser of the Netherlands, who had set a meeting record of 7.86 in her heat, but had to settle for second place in 7.96.
Visser's compatriot, Lieke Klaver, set a meeting record and personal best in the women’s 400m with a win in 51.00, with home runner Lada Vondrova second in a personal best of 51.57 and Britain’s world 4x400m bronze medallist and European 4x400m silver medallist Jessie Knight third in 52.73.
There was disappointment in the men’s 800m for Poland’s Olympic bronze medallist Patryk Dobek, who had arrived in Ostrava from his South African training camp for what he described as “a big test of form” in a season when he will seek to defend his European indoor title in Istanbul.
Dobek was the tenth and last finisher in 1:49.84 in a race won by Tunisia’s Abdessalam Ayouni in 1:47.97, with 2019 world silver medallist Amel Tuka of Bosnia and Herzegovina second in 1:48.09.
Cuba’s Roger Iribarne won his 60m hurdles heat in a personal best of 7.57, and improved to 7.54 to win the final but evergreen home favourite Petr Svoboda, now 38 and the European indoor champion back in 2011, won his heat in a season’s best of 7.56 before taking second place in the final in 7.58.
Neja Filipic provided another Slovenian victory when she won the women’s triple jump with a meeting record of 13.86m.
Home runner Matej Krsek won the men’s 400m A race in a personal best of 46.49, although two men had gone faster in the preceding B race – Isaiah Boers of the Netherlands, who clocked 46.36, and Danyla Danylenko of Ukraine, the latter recording a personal best of 46.46.
The women’s 1500m race went to Ethiopia’s Tigist Ketema in 4:08.84, with Lore Hoffman of Switzerland second in a personal best of 4:09.02.
Full results of the Czech Indoor Gala can be found here.