World Indoor record for Susanna Kallur in Karlsruhe

The highlight of the BW Bank Meeting in Karlsruhe was the World Indoor record of Swedish European Champion Susanna Kallur in the 60m Hurdles in Karlsruhe on Sunday afternoon.

The Swedish star clocked 7.68 seconds – one hundreth of a second faster than the 13-year-old World Indoor record from Ludmila Engqvist.

In the heats, Kallur had already improved the 19-year-old meeting record to a 7.78 after Lolo Jones (USA) improved it in the first heat to 7.87.

"It's unbelievable. It was always a dream of mine, and now it has come true," said the European Champion.

Another great competition was the men's Triple Jump. The Portuguese World Champion Nelson Evora was nearly suppressed by Randy Lewis (GRN) when he jumped a new personal best of 17.27m. However the World Champion used this challenge as the motivation he needed to pull it together and make his final jump of 17.33m.

"I improved my personal best indoors and the Portuguese record – so that is awesome. It was just another test for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia," said Evora.

The women's Long Jump was exciting as well. Tatyana Kotova (RUS) won the battle with 6.67m, 0.05m ahead of France's Eloyse Lesueur (6.62m), while Latvian Ineta Radevica took third place with 6.57m.

Blanka Vlasic was once again in good form. The evening concluded when she cleared 2.02m at her second attempt and went on to attempt 2.05m, but in the end it was just too high for Vlasic in Karlsruhe. Second was Marina Aitova (KAZ/1.95m), and Germany's Annett Engel improved her seasons best to 1.89 in third.

The men's Pole Vault was another German battle ground, with Alexander Straub, Tim Lobinger and Danny Ecker all head-to-head for the third time this week. However Straub was not able to win again after his victory in Düsseldorf, and it was the turn of two-time European Champion Tim Lobinger (5.70m) to take top honours (his eighth time in Kalrsuhe), the young Straub settling for second, with Ecker in third place also with 5.70m.

There was further German success in the men's 60m Hurdles where Thomas Blaschek finished in third equalling his personal best time and 200m runner, Tobias Unger, won a decisive victory of 20.88 seconds, ahead of American Rae Edwards who ran a personal best of 21.09, and Alexander Kosenkov (GER) who secured third with his 21.10 seasons.

"My time is ok – not good and not bad. I will see if I can run sub 6.60 at the German Championships in two weeks. If so, I will go to Valencia. But only if I do so," said Tobias Unger, who has had some injury problems in the past year.

Tatyana Petlyuk (UKR) finished second in the woman's 800m, with a season's best of 1:59.76, and third was Frenchwomen Elodie Guegan, who improved her personal best to 2:01.33.

In the men's race, Olympic Champion Nils Schuhmann had to pull out right before the start.
"My leg doesn't feel good, so I decided not to run to not risk a severe injury," Schuhmann apalogized.
The Polish runner Bartosz Nowicki won in 1:47,42 min.

All in all, it was another world class BW Bank meeting in Karlsruhe. The crowd was fantastic and supported every athlete. Alain Blondel, the meeting director, did a great job with the selection of the athletes, in a meeting that will be remembered mainly for the stellar performance of young Swede Susanna Kallur.

Source/Courtesy
European Athletics (EAA)
https://www.european-athletics.org/
EAA