Matt Centrowitz in the 2016 Camel City Invitational mile (© John Nepolitan (dyestat.com))
Jenn Suhr grabbed most of the headlines on Saturday with her world indoor pole vault record of 5.03m in Brockport but Matthew Centrowitz and Shannon Rowbury produced quick times and comfortable mile victories at the Camel City Invitational held on the aptly-named JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem on Saturday (30).
Centrowitz was challenged by Cory Leslie with 300 metres remaining but the two-time World Championships medallist produced a final circuit of 28.0 to claim victory in a world-leading 3:54.02, ahead of Leslie who was second in 3:56.25.
Next up for Centrowitz will be a 3000m race in Portland next weekend where he will chase the qualifying standard of 7:50:00 for the IAAF World Indoor Championships in the same city in March.
Rowbury couldn’t quite match her exploits of 12 months ago, when she moved to fifth on the world indoor all-time list with the fastest indoor time in 15 years when she clocked 4:22.66 but the perennial World Championships finalist was satisfied to win in 4:26.01, coming home by a commanding margin ahead of steeplechaser Stephanie Garcia in 4:28.47.
Three weeks after defeating Mo Farah over 8km at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country, Garrett Heath produced a last lap of 27.3 to win the 3000m in 7:48.48 ahead of Kenya’s Lawi Lalang in 7:50.07.
World silver medallist Melissa Bishop from Canada clocked 2:02.10 in her first 800m race of the season.
World and Olympic decathlon champion Ashton Eaton looked sharp in the 60m hurdles heats as he qualified as the fastest man with 7.70 but then finished fourth in the final in 7.77, which was won by Aleec Harris in 7.65.
However, Eaton did take the notable scalp of 2011 world 110m hurdles champion Jason Richardson, who was fifth in 7.80.
He also reached 14.23m in the shot put while his wife Brianne Theisen-Eaton went out to 13.04m in the women’s event.
After clearing 1.84m in the high jump on Friday, Theisen-Eaton also clocked 8.32 in the 60m hurdles heats but sat out the final.
Brianna Rollins broke the eight-second barrier in the final with 7.95 to finish ahead of world indoor champion Nia Ali in 8.03 and move up to third on the 2016 world list at this early stage in the season.
Katie Nageotte improved her outright lifetime best from 4.55m to 4.61m when winning the pole vault.
Swoboda sets Polish record
Racing on his home track, 10.05 100m performer Julian Reus equalled the German indoor record in Erfurt on Friday (29), which was set two months before the 27-year-old was even born.
Reus, who opened with a 6.60 clocking on the same track two weeks ago, improved to 6.53 to match the time set by East Germany’s Sven Matthes back in 1988.
Another noteworthy performance in Erfurt came from 18-year-old Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the European junior cross-country champion, who ran 4:09.79 over 1500m. It is the fastest time ever indoors by a European junior, but as it was in a mixed race it is unlikely to be ratified as a record.
In Luxembourg on Saturday, Ewa Swoboda, also 18, broke the Polish senior 60m record of 7.18 which was set 30 years ago today.
The European junior 100m champion, and one of the favourites for the world junior title on home soil in Bydgoszcz this summer, stopped the clock in 7.13, just 0.01 shy of Silke Gladisch's European junior record.
This time stood as a world-leading mark for a few hours until Michelle-Lee Ahye from Trinidad and Tobago eclipsed Swoboda’s mark with 7.12 in Houston.
In her first race since anchoring the British quartet to a world 4x400m bronze medal in Beijing, Seren Bundy-Davies raced to a world-leading 400m mark of 51.60 in Vienna.
Competing in front of her home fans in Split, world silver medallist Blanka Vlasic looked in good shape as she cleared 1.95m but the Croat was then forced to retire after one attempt at 2.00m, and she later announced that the achilles problems she suffered on Friday night has ruled her out for the remainder of the indoor season.
Rupp warms up for Los Angeles with 3000m win
A fortnight before his highly-anticipated marathon debut at the US Olympic Trials race in Los Angeles on 13 February, Galen Rupp sharpened up on Friday (29) with a low-key 3000m win at the third TrackTown High Performance Meet in Portland.
Rupp, who is also planning to contest the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016 if he qualifies at the US Championships next month, clocked 7:57.39 for the distance. He won by 30 seconds and lapped the entire field bar one.
However, the best mark of the meet came from rising star Boris Berian. The 23-year-old lowered his outdoor 800m best from 1:48.89 to 1:43.34 last summer and he took a sizeable slice from his indoor best in Portland, lowering it from 1:48.53 to 1:46.00.
Berian moves to second on the 2016 world list behind his compatriot Donavan Brazier, who set a US junior indoor record of 1:45.93 a fortnight ago.
Barshim jumps to top of the world list
Qatar’s world indoor champion Mutaz Essa Barshim opened his 2016 season with a world-leading 2.34m clearance in Malmo, Sweden, on Sunday before attempting 2.38m.
Barshim has said he is planning to compete sparingly in the build-up to the Olympic Games but that he is intending to compete at the Asian Indoor Championships held on home soil in Doha next month on the road to the IAAF World Indoor Championships where he will defend the title he won in Poland two years ago.
Another notable result in Malmo was the 6.64m long jump win by World Championships finalist Khaddi Sagnia, just two centimetres short of her recent indoor best.
At an international combined events match in Reims, France, Spain’s Jorge Urena won the heptathlon with a world-leading 6076, adding 14 points to the Spanish record that had been held for 24 years by 1992 Olympic silver medallist Antonio Penalver.
Czech Republic’s Adam Helcelet was second with 5859 and the Czech team also took the top two places in the pentathlon with Eliska Klucinova winning with 4425 from her compatriot Katerina Cachova, who was second with 4277.
Steven Mills for the IAAF
