athletics
Mihambo wins at Istaf – Duplantis misses a world record
Won the Istaf Indoor in Berlin: Malaika Mihambo. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
Malaika Mihambo also jumped the furthest at the indoor meeting in Berlin. The weak start cost Gina Lückenkemper victory. Not much is missing to a world record.
Long jump Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo also secured victory at the Istaf Indoor in Berlin. The 29-year-old from LG Kurpfalz won with 6.81 meters.
However, the two-time world champion had problems with her run-up, led from the start by 6.72 meters and, after four invalid attempts, finally flew to the winning distance. Most recently in Düsseldorf, she only won in the last attempt with 6.83 meters.
“The competition is not over until the last one has jumped. That’s why I’m fully motivated and try to do my best,” said Mihambo, who said she had hurt her knee a bit. “I had to get back into the competition and make the best of it,” said Mihambo.
In the high-class competition, Italy’s Larissa Iapichino took second place with 6.69 meters ahead of Jasmin Sawyers from Great Britain, who was third at the European Championships with the same distance. European outdoor champion and indoor world champion Ivana Vuleta from Serbia finished fourth with 6.66 meters.
Lückenkemper over 60 meters in third place
In front of 11,850 spectators in the Mercedes-Benz Arena, double European champion Gina Lückenkemper took third place over 60 meters in 7.16 seconds. Born in Westphalia, she started too weakly, as is often the case, and had no chance against Briton Daryll Neita, who won in 7.05 seconds. The relay European champions Lisa Mayer (7.20) and Alexandra Burghardt (7.22) came in fourth and fifth.
In the men’s sprint, Joshua Hartmann ran 6.53 seconds just a hundredth of a second past the German indoor record. Only the Briton Reece Prescod was faster with 6.49 seconds.
Duplantis with meeting record in pole vault
Olympic champion and world champion Armand Duplantis won the pole vault with a meeting record of 6.06 meters. After that, the 23-year-old Swede failed three times at the world record height of 6.22 meters.
Torben Blech from Leverkusen was fourth with 5.73 meters. European Championship runner-up Bo Kanda Lita Baehre from Leverkusen only managed 5.60 meters and had to settle for fifth place.