Marcell Jacobs surges to 60m title at European Indoors

Marcell Jacobs and Femke Bol were the stars of the show at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Torun, Poland on Saturday (6 March).

Texas-born Italian Jacobs powered to victory in the men's 60m, extending clear of his rivals in the closing stages to win in a 2021 world-leading time of 6.47s which was also a new national record.

Germany's Kevin Kranz was a distant second in 6.60s with Slovak Jan Volko third in 6.61s.

Bol was a similarly dominant winner of the 400m, cruising around the outside to the front at the midway point and easing clear.

She crossed the line in a Dutch record of 50.63s, well clear of Poland's Justyna Swiety-Ersetic with British team captain Jodie Williams finishing strongly to take bronze.

Angelica Moser cleared a personal best of 4.75m with her second attempt to take gold in the pole vault.

The Swiss won from Slovenia's Tina Sutej (4.70m) with Britain's Holly Bradshaw taking third on countback after a best clearance of 4.65m.

Germany's world outdoor long champion Malaika Mihaimbo was denied gold by Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk in the final round.

The Ukrainian leapt 6.92m, the best jump in the world this year, to beat Mihaimbo by four centimetres with Sweden's Khaddi Sagnia (6.75m) collecting bronze.

Elise Vanderelst took gold in the women's 1500m after Esther Guerrero's brave bid for victory came to naught.

In a messy, physical race, Guerrero kicked clear at halfway and stayed away from the bumping in behind.

But she expended too much effort and faded badly on the last lap, eventually finishing in fifth place just behind fellow Spaniard Marta Perez.

And it was Vanderelst who finished powerfully to take gold for Belgium in 4:18.44.

Holly Archer of Great Britain crossed the line in second with Germany's Hanna Klein third.

Archer was disqualified for excessive jostling with Klein and Perez promoted to silver and bronze, but the Briton was later reinstated on appeal.

There was joy for Spain in the men's 400m as Oscar Husillos held off his rivals to take gold.

The 27-year-old went out hard on the first lap, and gritted his teeth as he clocked a season's best 46.22s to win by just three-hundredths of a second from Tony van Diepen with another Dutchman, Liemarvin Bonevacia, in third.

France's Kevin Mayer holds a narrow lead after day one of the heptathlon thanks to two personal bests in the first four events.

The decathlon world record holder and Olympic silver medallist from Rio 2016 clocked 6.86s for the 60m and 16.32m in the shot put.

He also leapt 7.47m in the long jump and had a best clearance of 2.04m in the high jump for a total score of 3571.

Switzerland's Simon Ehammer is just 33 points behind in second after getting off to a blistering start courtesy of a rapid 6.75s in the 60m and a long jump personal best of 7.89m.

But 14.75m in the shot put and a 1.95m high jump saw him slip behind Mayer.

Spain's Jorge Urena is in bronze medal position on 3424 with Germany's Andreas Bechmann and home athlete Pawel Wiesiolek also scoring in excess of 3400 points on the first day.

Mayer opted to stop after his first failure at 2.07m in the high jump and explained to European Athletics, "I feel good, I just decided not to continue to make sure I do not get into difficulty and to conserve some energy. I feel confident and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. It is good to be hunted by opponents."