Arthur Cisse, Dina Asher-Smith, and Armand Duplantis were among the highlighted performers at the ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Silver meeting on Sunday (31).
Back-To-Back 60m Wins For Asher-Smith
Less than 48 hours after running a world-leading time to win the women’s 60m at the 2021 Indoor Meeting Karlsruhe on Friday, Asher-Smith returned Sunday to win that event again in Duplantis with a time of 7.12 seconds. She clocked 7.15 to win in the first round heats.
The Great Britain world 200m champion ran a world-leading and personal best matching time of 7.08 second in her season opener in Karlsruhe.
“I was really happy with how I started in Karlsruhe. I knew I was in good shape but sometimes it takes me a few meets to get going,” said Asher-Smith, who is running her first indoor season since 2018.
“I was happy to come out and perform really well a few days ago. Hopefully, with a bit more training and a bit more hard work, we can push to faster times. The Europeans will be really exciting, it will be great to get out there in a championship again. I love championships.”
She added: “It is the most fun for me, so it will be really exciting to get out there and perform with heats, semi-finals and a final again.”
Ajla Del Ponte of Switzerland continued her promising start to the young season by posting a new personal best time of 7.16 to shave 0.01 off her previous best and grabbed second place behind Asher-Smith. Jennifer Montag of Germany also ran a personal best of 7.24 for third place with American Dezerea Bryant taking fifth in 7.28.
Ivory Coast sprinter Arthur Cisse comfortably ran away with the men’s 60m title. The 24-year-old got off to a good start and then pull away from the field to post a time of 6.54, which is the second-fastest in the world this year behind USA’s Trayvon Bromell’s 6.48.
“The race was not perfect but I am sure to be able to improve things,” Cisse said.
Kevin Kranz of Germany came home a distant second in 6.61 with countryman Deniz Almas taking third in 6.65.
Duplantis Dominates Pole Vault
Meanwhile, Armand Duplantis flew over 6.01m to capture the men’s pole vault competition.
After opening the contest with first-time clearances of 5.52m and 5.72m with his first attempts, Duplantis took two tries to go over 5.86m. The 2020 World Athlete of the Year then cleared 5.91m with his first attempt to secure the victory before moving the bar up to 6.01m, which he topped with his second chance.
The 21-year-old Swede star took one attempt at 6.19m, which would have been a world record, but failed to complete the attempt. He then decided to end his competition for the day.
His performance is the second best this season just behind Renaud Lavillenie’s 6.02m.
“I’m pretty happy with the result. I wanted to get over six metres in the first meet,” admits Duplantis. “I knew going in I was going to be a little rusty. That’s just kind of how it is in the first meet.
“I was able to figure it out so I’m pretty happy with the 6.01 jump and the win.”
Germany’s Torben Blech also enjoyed a good day in the event after matching and then improving his career-best, to take second with 5.86m. American Olympic bronze medalist Sam Kendricks was third with 5.81m.
Meanwhile, 2019 world champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany won the women’s long jump on countback over Swede Khaddi Sagnia after both athletes jumped 6.74m.
Elsewhere at the ISTAF Indoor Dusseldorf, Nadine Visser of The Netherlands narrowly won the women’s 60m hurdles over Alina Talay of Belarus. Visser took the victory with 8.01 seconds, with Talay just 0.01 behind.
It was even closer in the men’s race with Poland’s Damian Czykier getting the nod over American Aaron Mallett with both sprint hurdlers credited with 7.64.
