Spanovic soars to gold at European indoor championships
Ivana Spanovic produced the best indoor women’s long jump for 28 years as she soared to victory at the European indoor championships on Sunday.
Spanovic jumped 7.24 metres to beat Lorraine Ugen by 27 centimetres. Only two women in history have gone further indoors, both in the 1980s - East German Heike Drechsler and Soviet jumper Galina Chistyakova.
The Serbian crowd was delighted as Spanovic retained her title in her home city. After her last jump she lay back in the sandpit with a broad grin before taking a lap of honour.
Ugen set a new British record of 6.97 on her way to silver, while Claudia Salman-Rath of Germany took bronze on 6.94.
The only Russian taking part at the championships, Darya Klishina, was fourth on 6.84, competing as a neutral athlete in a plain uniform. The Russian team remains banned from international competitions due to widespread doping.
Five Russian athletes, including Klishina, have been given permission to compete as neutral athletes, either because they are based outside Russia or because the IAAF is satisfied with their drug-testing history.
After winning the 1,500 on Saturday, Britain’s Laura Muir completed a golden double with victory in the 3,000 on Sunday.
The Scottish runner finished in a championship-record time of 8 minutes, 35.67 seconds, winning by almost eight seconds from Kenyan-born Turkish runner Yasemin Can.
The bronze went to another British runner, Eilish McColgan.
More British success followed in the 60 sprint, with Asha Philip taking gold in 7.06 seconds, ahead of Olesya Povh of Ukraine and Poland’s Ewa Swoboda.
Poland finished with seven golds, topping the medal table after four wins on Sunday. The Poles won the men’s and women’s 4x400 relays, while Sylwester Bednarek won the men’s high jump and Adam Kszczot took the 800.
Spain’s Adel Mechaal won the men’s 3,000 in 8:00.60, narrowly ahead of Norwegian Henrik Ingebrigtsen, with third place going to German runner Richard Ringer.
Nelson Evora of Portugal retained his European indoor title in the triple jump with a leap of 17.20 metres. That was 7 centimetres further than Italian Fabrizio Donato managed for silver, which was just a centimeter further than German bronze medallist Max Hess.
Swiss runner Selina Buechel won the women’s 800 in 2:00.38, needing a photo finish to beat Britain’s Shelayna Oskan-Clarke into second place.
France’s Kevin Mayer won the heptathlon with a Europeanrecord 6,479 points.