Report: ISTAF Indoor Berlin 2022
Mondo Duplantis and Marcell Jacobs, Olympic winners, excelled at the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin on Friday 4, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver competition.
Duplantis of Sweden added a centimetre to his world lead in the pole vault, clearing 6.03m to also break the meeting record before a good try at a world record, while Jacobs of Italy won the men’s 60m final in 6.51 in his first event since winning Olympic gold in the 100m and 4x100m in Tokyo.
Duplantis had a tough path getting into position to try his own world record of 6.18m, but he made two decent attempts once there. KC Lightfoot of the United States soared over 5.92m on his first attempt, but Duplantis took three efforts to clear it. He then reverted to a more familiar form after another failed effort at 6.03m, clearing the height well and improving his world lead of 6.02m achieved in Karlsruhe the week before, as well as the meeting record of the same height set by Renaud Lavillenie in 2015.
Duplantis then attempted 6.19m, coming very near on his second and third tries at the world record height.
Berlin : Mondo Duplantis n’était pas loin de battre son record du monde à la perche
6.19M 👀👀😩 #Athlétismepic.twitter.com/rGVZ8JhR2G— MR.CARTER (@NelsonCarterJr) February 4, 2022
“These attempts felt good and I realised that it is possible,” he said. “I am now at a point in my career where I make small improvements. One week I change my run-up, in the next week I am jumping a bit more aggressively. That way I can improve step by step. I know what to do and that I am in a position to jump higher.”
Lightfoot came in second with 5.92m, and Oleg Zernikel of Germany came in third with a personal best of 5.81m.
Jacobs proved untouchable in the 60m after taking the lead from the opening. He won his heat in 6.57 and then improved to 6.51 in the final, which was his second-fastest time behind his national record of 6.47 set last year in Torun when he won the European indoor title.
He finished ahead of Ivory Coast’s Arthur Cisse, who ran 6.60, and France’s Jimmy Vicaut, who ran 6.61.
“Last year I started my season here and it was the beginning of an unforgettable year. So, it was good to start in Berlin again,” said Jacobs.
“I had a very long time with no competitions after Tokyo but I really needed to recover mentally and physically. The indoor season will be very intense and will peak with the World Indoor Championships.”
Daryll Neita of the United Kingdom led the women’s 60m, getting off to the best possible start in her first race of the season. With a personal best of 7.18, she stormed through her opponents in the first round and qualified for the final. Her previous best was 7.21, which she achieved last year.
In the final, the Olympic 100m finalist raced 7.15 to win ahead of Italy’s Zaynab Dosso and Germany’s Sophia Junk, who recorded personal bests of 7.28 and 7.29, respectively.
Reetta Hurske of Finland won the women’s 60m hurdles in 7.99 seconds over Zoe Sydney of the Netherlands in 8.05 seconds, while Aurel Manga of France won the men’s event in 7.62 seconds over Koen Smet of the Netherlands and Rafael Pereira of Brazil, both in 7.68 seconds.
Pereira had broken the South American record earlier in the heats, recording 7.58 to improve his personal best by 0.18 and beat an 18-year-old region record.
Khaddi Sagnia of Sweden won the long jump with a leap of 6.68m in the fifth round. Merle Homeier of Germany had been at the top with 6.59m before that round. She subsequently jumped a personal best of 6.66m in the final round, good enough for second place on countback ahead of her compatriot Malaika Mihambo, the Olympic champion, who had run-up issues during her season debut in her specialty event. Mihambo also participated in the 60m heats, clocking a time of 7.48 seconds.
