Germany’s Neele Eckhardt-Noack produced a triple jump European lead of 14.48m at the Vallehermoso Stadium on Saturday (18) as she won the concluding event of the Meeting of Madrid — a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meet.
No less than four national records and one national U23 record also fell in Madrid, with two of them coming in the women’s hammer throw. The 2021 Meeting of Madrid winner Sara Fantini broke the Italian record not once but twice on her way to her second triumph in a row in the Spanish capital. Fantini, 24, lead the competition from the beginning with an Italian best of 75.76m which she bettered in her last attempt to 75.77m — the fifth furthest throw in the world so far this year.
Behind her, Laura Redondo also broke her own Spanish record with 71.96m in the first round and improved it to 72.00m in the third — getting the European Championship standard of 71.80m in the process.
Denmark’s Ida Karstoft kept the momentum and broke her fourth national 200m record in just four races this outdoor campaign by winning the event with 22.68. Paula Sevilla crossed the line in second position with a huge personal best of 22.86 and climbed to second position in Spanish all-time list. Fellow countrywoman Jaël Sakura Bestué was third in 23.01, breaking the Spanish U23 record after a long spell injury. Both Sevilla and Bestué secured the European Championship standard.
The fourth and last national record of the evening came courtesy of another Dane in the 100m hurdles. Mette Graversgaard improved her own Danish best to 12.89 into a -1.2m/s headwind to defeat Ireland’s Sarah Lavin by a hundredth of a second — the same margin Lavin got over her former personal best of 12.94.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, Spanish record-holder Sara Gallego took the win with a second career-best of 55.02 despite hitting the second hurdle. In the men’s javelin, her fellow countryman Manu Quijera got the second local triumph at the Meeting of Madrid by throwing 80.29m.
2012 Olympic silver medalist Luguelín Santos of Dominican Republic claimed the triumph in a season best of 45.09, beating Ireland’s Christopher O’Donnell, who was second with 45.26. In the B race, Japan’s Julian Walsh clocked 45.27 to win over Spain’s Manuel Guijarro, who set a personal best by half second with 45.47.
Netherland’s Rutger Koppelaar and Australia’s Brandon Starc secured victories in the men’s pole vault and high jump respectively. Both cleared season bests of 5.70m and 2.26m.
The extremely hot conditions made the women’s 3000m steeplechase a race of survival in which Ukraine’s Nataliya Strebkova emerged to win — breaking the meeting record in the process with 9:33.11, very close to her personal best of 9:32.05.
Ethiopia’s Kesanet Alemu set a personal best of 4:06.29 to get triumph in a tight women’s 1500m race where the first seven athletes crossed the line in a span of a second.
The men’s 800m was even tighter, with just eight tenths of a second between the winner — Tunisia’s Abdessalem Ayouni with 1:46.12 — and the ninth — Burundi’s Eric Nzikwinkunda with 1:46.97. Spanish record-holder Saúl Ordóñez and world indoor champion Mariano García both clocked season bests of 1:46.24 and 1:46.37 respectively.
In the men’s short sprints, Côte d’Ivoire’s Arthur Cisse won the 100m with a season best of 10.06, while Cuba’s Roger Iribarne did the same in the 110m hurdles with 13.49.
