Tina Sutej took her national record up to 4.75m last summer and the multiple Slovenian champion and record-holder is already nearing those heights in the early weeks of the 2021 indoor season.
Sutej already jointly held the meeting record at the Czech Indoor Gala in Ostrava with a 4.60m clearance but the world finalist ameliorated that mark twice on Wednesday (3) evening, clearing 4.63m on her first attempt before a third time clearance at 4.70m.
Sutej concluded her competition with three unsuccessful attempts at an outright national record of 4.76m, a height she believes is within her grasp on the road to the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
'I am happy with my meeting record and confirming my standard. Technically I still have a lot of things to improve, but I believe I can do more than 4.80m this indoor season,' she said.
Romana Malacova was a distant second with a 4.43m clearance. In third Naama Bernstein set an Israeli record of 4.35m.
On the track, three-time world and European indoor champion Pavel Maslak delivered a signature performance on home soil in the men’s 400m.
Maslak took control of proceedings at the break from lanes and further extended his advantage on the second lap. He set a season’s best of 46.22 - just 0.11 shy of the meeting record - ahead of European finalist Ricardo dos Santos who lowered the Portuguese record to 46.64. Maslak’s long-time Czech relay teammate Vit Muller was third in 46.65.
Maslak missed the last edition of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow due to illness but the 29-year-old will be targeting an unprecedented fourth individual title in Torun next month.
Cynthia Bolingo narrowly lost out to Lea Sprunger in one of the closest races of the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow two years ago in the 400m but the Belgian had a narrow triumph over the same distance. She clocked 52.89 on her season’s debut to edge out Greece’s Irini Vasilou in 52.96.
European indoor silver medallist Jamie Webb from Great Britain won the men’s 800m in a lifetime best of 1:46.45 from the Czech duo of Filip Snejdr (1:46.63) and Lukas Hodbod (1:46.93). Hungarian record-holder Istvan Szogi also followed up his victory in Vienna on Saturday evening with another notable 1500m win in 3:39.28 ahead of Luxembourg’s Charles Gretchen who set a national indoor record of 3:39.49.
Only 19, Pia Skrzyszowska set a 60m PB of 7.24 last month to qualify for Torun and the Pole set another lifetime best in the 60m hurdles with 8.02 to secure the qualifying time for the European Indoor Championships in her second event.
Other highlights included Jamile Samuel from the Netherlands winning the 60m in 7.28 and Tomas Stanek winning the shot put with 20.94m.
Full results here.