World champions Raphael Holzdeppe and David Storl were among the leading performers at the German Championships in Nurnberg, which concluded on Sunday (26) after three days of action.Holzdeppe showed he is rounding into his best form ahead of the defence of his world title in Beijing, winning the pole vault with a lifetime best of 5.94m.After first-time clearances at 5.60m and 5.70m, he waited until his two remaining opponents &ndash; Tobias Scherbath and Carlo Paech &ndash; had bowed out before upping the bar to a PB height. Once again, he got over it on his first attempt, adding two centimetres to the championship record and moving to second on the 2015 world list.The 25-year-old then upped the bar to a would-be national record of 6.02m, a height he wasn&rsquo;t quite able to negotiate, but he was more than pleased with his result.&ldquo;To jump a personal best and championship record is an incredible feeling,&rdquo; said Holzdeppe after moving up one place to fifth on the German all-time list. &ldquo;I have planned for this for a long time and today it finally worked.&rdquo;In the shot put, Storl showed that he has sufficiently recovered from the niggling neck injury that kept him out of the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco, winning his event with 21.47m.With five attempts at 21 metres or better, and a sixth attempt just two centimetres shy of that line, any of his throws would have been enough to win by more than a metre.&ldquo;I was missing a bit of speed, but this was my last competition before the World Championships,&rdquo; said Storl, who was competing on the eve of his 25th birthday. &ldquo;There, I will push a little further to defend my title.&rdquo;World silver medallist Christina Schwanitz was just as dominant in the women&rsquo;s event. She followed her opening-round throw of 20.00m with three more efforts beyond 19 metres, eventually winning by almost three metres from World University Games champion Lena Urbaniak.Having been denied a 10th successive national title last year, former world record-holder Betty Heidler regained her crown from leading domestic rival Kathrin Klaas in the hammer, winning easily with a throw of 75.34m.The women&rsquo;s javelin and discus, however, were a lot closer. Katharina Molitor&rsquo;s early lead of 63.37m was bettered in the second round by world champion Christina Obergfoll, who threw a season&rsquo;s best of 64.11m. But Molitor responded in the next round with 65.40m, a mark that remained the lead for the duration of the contest.Nadine Muller threw a season&rsquo;s best of 65.72m in the first round of the discus to lead from European under-23 Shanice Craft, who opened with 64.79m. But while neither of them bettered their opening marks, Julia Fischer was improving with each throw and eventually landed one at a season&rsquo;s best of 65.98m to take her first senior national title.Thomas Rohler won his fourth successive German title in the javelin, all six of his throws landing well beyond the 81-metre line. His winning distance of 84.73m was achieved in the fifth round and saw him overtake Johannes Vetter, who had thrown 83.12m in round two. Lars Hamann finished third with 81.03m.Three-time world champion Robert Harting may still be out of action, but younger brother Christoph ensured the German discus title remained within the family. Having trailed Martin Wierig for much of the competition, the 24-year-old saved his best for last, throwing 64.06m in the final round to win by 51 centimetres.World indoor finalist Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch won the high jump with 1.95m, finishing 11 centimetres in front of Katarina Mogenburg, daughter of former world record-holder and 1984 Olympic champion Dietmar Mogenburg.<h3>Kohlmann now a regular sub-two performer</h3>Before this month, Fabienne Kohlmann had never run faster than two minutes for 800m; her PB dating back to 2010. But the former 400m hurdler is now the World University Games bronze medallist, the fastest German since 2000 and the national champion over two laps of the track with a PB of 1:58.37.Following the lifetime best she set in Bellinzona last week, Kohlmann produced the second-best time of her life to win in Nurnberg. Training partner Christina Hering led for most of the first lap before Kohlmann took up the running, passing the bell in 59.62.Kohlmann maintained the lead to the finish but was chased hard by Hering as the pair crossed the lien in 1:59.28 and 1:59.54, a PB for the latter.Julian Reus replicated his feats from 2013 by winning both the 100m and 200m titles. After clocking 10.09 (1.8m/s) in the heats, he won the 100m final in 10.12 (-0.2m/s). He returned 24 hours later to comfortably win the 200m title in 20.42, the second-fastest clocking of his career.Verena Sailer similarly ran a faster time in the heats than in the final to win the women&rsquo;s 100m title. Having clocked a season&rsquo;s best of 11.16 in the first round, she ran 11.20 to take victory in the final.Triple European under-23 sprint champion Rebekka Haase finished second in the 100m in 11.29 but returned to win the 200m in a PB of 22.95.Following her PB of 9:20.15 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco, Gesa-Felicitas Krause produced her fastest time on German soil to win the 3000m steeplechase in 9:32.20, crossing the finish line just as her nearest rival was negotiating the final water jump.Gregor Traber ran the fastest time by a German athlete in 10 years to win the 110m hurdles. The world indoor finalist clocked 13.32 to finish a metre in front of Matthias Buhler.Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

World champions Raphael Holzdeppe and David Storl were among the leading performers at the German Championships in Nurnberg, which concluded on Sunday (26) after three days of action.

Field eventers stand out at German Championships

Following three successive losses, US sprint hurdler Jasmin Stowers returned to winning ways at the Gala dei Castelli in the Swiss city of Bellinzona on Tuesday (21).The 23-year-old started her season in incredible form, reducing her PB to 12.40, 12.39 and then 12.35 to win at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha. But the rest of her year has been a rollercoaster ride, after hitting a hurdle in Rome, getting disqualified for a false start in Birmingham, winning in Oslo and then finishing fifth at the US Championships, missing a place on the national team for the World Championships.In Bellinzona, though, Stowers was back on top, breaking the meeting record with 12.62 to edge out two-time world indoor champion Lolo Jones, who set a season&rsquo;s best of 12.65.&ldquo;The weather conditions were perfect for fast times,&rdquo; said Stowers. &ldquo;I am used to running in warm weather. I enjoyed running in front of this fantastic crowd.&rdquo;The meeting record also fell in the men&rsquo;s event. Ronnie Ash clocked 13.13 in the pre-meeting programme to take 0.07 off Colin Jackson&rsquo;s 110m hurdles stadium record. The US sprint hurdler didn&rsquo;t start for the final in the main programme, which was won by British champion Lawrence Clarke in 13.42, 0.03 ahead of USA&rsquo;s Jarret Eaton.Former world record-holder Asafa Powell broke the 10-second barrier for the 90th time in his career. In warm and windless conditions, the Jamaican clocked a meeting record of 9.87, repeating the time he produced when winning in Lucerne last week.In a race which featured five men with sub-10-second season&rsquo;s bests, Powell&rsquo;s compatriot Nesta Carter finished runner-up with 10.05 ahead of 2003 world champion Kim Collins (10.13).Turkey&rsquo;s Jak Ali Harvey twice bettered the track record set 16 years ago by Bruny Surin. First he clocked a national record of 10.04 in the heats and then later won the B race in 10.03. But that mark only lasted a matter of minutes as a meeting record as Powell significantly bettered it in the A race.&ldquo;It was a good race against a strong field,&rdquo; said Powell, competing in his last race before the IAAF World Championships. &ldquo;I am happy to run the first sub-10 on this track; the crowd pushed me a lot.&rdquo;Olympic 4x100m champion Tianna Bartoletta won the women&rsquo;s 100m in 11.07, having earlier won her heat in 11.09. Switzerland&rsquo;s Mujinga Kambundji broke her own national record with 11.17, taking 0.03 off the mark she set at last year&rsquo;s European Championships.One of the big surprises of the meeting came in the women&rsquo;s 800m. World University Games bronze medallist Fabienne Kohlmann smashed her PB to take the win in 1:58.37, the fifth-fastest time in the world this year and the best by a German runner since 2000.&ldquo;I just destroyed the PB I set two weeks ago,&rdquo; said the former 400m hurdler. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe it!&rdquo;USA&rsquo;s Molly Ludlow finished second in 1:59.05, beating European indoor champion Selina Buchel, who clocked 1:59.23.Amel Tuka, competing for the first time since his surprise world-leading win at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco, notched up another victory in the 800m.As was the case in Monaco last Friday, the Bosnian athlete launched his kick on the final straight to pull away from second-place finisher Amine El Manaoui, winning by half a second in 1:45.80.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an amazing season for me,&rdquo; said Tuka. &ldquo;The Monaco win was amazing as everyone apart from David Rudisha was there.&rdquo;Swiss hero Kariem Hussein, the European 400m hurdles champion, won in front of his local fans with 48.93, his second-fastest time of the season.Elsewhere, world champion Christina Obergfoll set a meeting record in the javelin with 61.71m. Kenya&rsquo;s Cornelius Kangogo won the men&rsquo;s 3000m in 7:47.21, while Ukraine&rsquo;s Kristina Hryshutina leapt 6.61m to defeat compatriot Maryna Beck by just three centimetres in the women&rsquo;s long jump.Diego Sampaolo for the IAAF

Following three successive losses, US sprint hurdler Jasmin Stowers returned to winning ways at the Gala dei Castelli in the Swiss city of Bellinzona on Tuesday (21).

Field eventers stand out at German Championships

Stowers, Kohlmann and Ash among the meeting record-breakers in Bellinzona