DUSSELDORF: Britain’s 200m world champion Dina Asher-Smith picked up her second indoor victory over 60m in Germany this week by winning the women’s final in Duesseldorf.
Having equalled her personal best by running 7.08 seconds to claim victory in Karlsruhe, the 25-year-old clocked 7.12 to win again.
This week was the first time the British sprint queen has raced indoors for three years and anywhere for well over a year.
“I am happy to be back running again. It has been quite a long time since my last race in 2019,” Asher-Smith told Athletics Weekly.
“I was very surprised how well I started in Karlsruhe,” she added having narrowly missed the British 60m indoor record.
“I was very happy to come out and run a 7.08 and I was happy to do some good performances here (in Duesseldorf) as well.”
Asher-Smith dominated at the meet, held behind closed doors because of the coronavirus pandemic, as she prepares for the Tokyo Olympics.
She finished ahead of Swiss sprinter Ajla del Ponte, who ran a personal best of 7.16secs.
Asher-Smith is also set to race in Lievin on February 9 and confirmed she will race at the European Indoor Championships in Turon, Poland, from March 5-7.
Ivory Coast sprinter Arthur Cisse was a hundredth of a second short of his personal best in taking the men’s 60m final in 6.54 seconds.
Germany’s world champion Malaika Mihambo was victorious on count back in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.74 metres on her second attempt.
Swede Khaddi Sagnia matched Mihambo’s distance leaving Serbia’s world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic third with 6.61m.
Mihambo planned to jump at Friday’s ISTAF indoor meet in Berlin and described competing as “a piece of normality in these pretty abnormal times”.
Swede Armand Duplantis opened his season with victory in the men’s pole vault with 6.01m but the 21-year-old failed in an attempt to break his own world indoor record when he could not clear 6.19m.
Germany’s Torben Blech took second with a personal best of 5.86m to leave USA’s two-time world champion Sam Kendricks third at 5.81m.
Meanwhile, in Tourcoing on the French-Belgian border, former polevault world record holder Renaud Lavillenie registered his first success over six metres in almost five years.
The 34-year-old former Olympic champion won with a height of 6.02m.
The last time the Frenchman crossed the symbolic six-metre barrier was in March 2016 when he won the world indoor title in Portland, also with 6.02m.
“It’s a great day, it gave me a lot of pleasure,” he told AFP.
“I knew that I was capable of this seeing what I had done in training. It’s clearly a return to my best level.”
