Danielle Williams
Danielle Williams of Jamaica

Jamaican Danielle Williams was in top form at the Friday, January 28 INIT Indoor Meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany. The 38th edition of the meet saw eight events out from 12 establish a new world leader, four equally for men and women.

Williams, the 2015 world 100-meter hurdles champion outdoors, won the women’s 60-meter hurdles at the  World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in a personal best 7.84 seconds, beating  France’s rising star, 21-year-old Cyrena Samba-Mayela in a photo-finish. Samba-Mayela’s run was a new national under-23 record. Earlier, she clocked 7.93 seconds in the heats. Third place went to Reetta Hurske with a 7.96-second personal-best, 0.01 better than her previous mark. Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist Megan Tapper ran a personal best 8.06 in the heats.

Berihu Aregawi stunned the world by winning the 3000 meters in 7:26.20, the fifth fastest-time in history and very close to the meeting record of 7:26.15 set in 1998.

Unsurprisingly, Mondo Duplantis jumped over 6 meters on his indoor season opener with 6.02 meters and seriously attacked 6.19 meters three times. Duplantis does what he knows best, as he opened his indoor season with clean series up to 6.02, a new WL and MR in the men’s pole vault. He then attacked 6.19 meters for a new world record, but failed. In second, KC Lightfoot with 5.89 meters, along with five other jumpers, achieved 5.71.

Pascal Martinot-Lagarde clocked a world-leading time of 7.54 seconds in the final of the 60-meter hurdles, two hours after he equaled the world lead in the heats with 7.56. Behind him were two new names on the big stage, both with personal-bests: Enrique LLopis of Spain (7.59) and Jakub Szymanski of Poland, 7.60 seconds.

In the 800 meters, Elliot Giles ran 1:46.78 seconds to win, just 0.05 ahead of Andreas Kramer (1:46.83) and Mostafa Smaili (1:47.00).

Thobias Montler was the only man over 8 meters in the long jump. His 8.02-meter European Lead in round 6 gave him the win, after an 8.00-meter effort in round 2. France’s Erwan Konaté broke the official European junior indoor record with 7.98 meters as well as equaled Teddy Tamgho’s under-23 French record. Local Maximilian Entholzner was third with 7.92 meters.

Andreas Pantazis of Greece created an upset when he set a world leading 16.79 meters in the triple jump, ahead of Nazim Babayev (16.76), Max Heß (16.73) and Simo Lipsanen, 16.71. Frenchmen Melvin Raffin (16.52) and Jean-Marc Pontvianne, who no-measured, were far out of contention.

Maribel Pérez equalled her own 60-meter Spanish record to win in 7.21 seconds, from Patrizia van der Weken’s 7.29 (she improved her Luxemburg national record in the heats with 7.26). Third place went to Barbados’ Tristan Evelyn in a season-best 7.33.

Anna Kielbasinska ran a world-leading 51.92 seconds to win the 400 meters, also a personal best, from Phil Healy, who was second in 51.97, close to her personal best of 51.94. Lieke Klaver won final 2 in 52.41, the third-best overall time of the night.

World champion Halimah Nakaayi won the 800 meters to lead the world in 2:02.81 ahead of the Germans Christina Hering (2:03.73) and Tanja Spill (2:04.39).

In the high jump, a close battle between Emily Borthwick and Imke Onnen produced an equal world lead of 1.91 meters, as the event ended in a tie. Olympic finalist Marija Vukovic was third with 1.88 meters, the same as fourth-placed jumper Yulia Levchenko.

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