European U23 triple jump champion Maria Vicente bounded out to victory in the long jump at the Navarra Indoor Athletics Meeting, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger event, on Friday (29) evening.
In front of 4000 spectators for the first World Athletics Indoor Tour event in Europe this winter, Vicente - who endeavours to return to the combined events in 2024 - won the long jump with a promising season’s debut of 6.62m ahead of Fatima Diame with 6.55m.
In a hotly awaited men’s 60m hurdles, Job Geerds from the Netherlands took the victory in a lifetime best of 7.64 and also took the scalp of 2016 European 110m hurdles champion Dimitri Bascou from France who was second in 7.65.
Home favourite Asier Martinez, who was born just outside Pamplona and was the poster boy for the event, didn’t progress through the heats. In his first race in over a year due to a foot injury, the reigning European 110m hurdles champion clocked 7.85 in his 60m hurdles heat and did not progress through to the final.
Slovenia’s Nika Glojnaric won the women’s 60m hurdles in 8.18 while there was another Dutch winner in the women’s 60m with Demi van der Wildenberg clocking 7.38.
Other winners included Jaime Guerra who won the men’s long jump with 7.91m and Italy’s Andy Diaz who won the triple jump on countback from Portugal’s Tiago Pereira on countback at 16.90m courtesy of a superior second best mark of 16.87m. Andrea San Jose also won the pole vault with 4.40m.
The Navarra Indoor Athletics meeting was the first of 46 World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver, Bronze and Challenger meetings to take place in Europe this indoor season on the road to the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow from 1-3 March.
The current schedule of Silver, Bronze and Challenger events - all of which fall within the management and administration of European Athletics - can be found here.
Live streaming details for this year’s World Athletics Indoor Tour will be announced in the early weeks of 2024.
Full results can be found here.