They included Mondo Duplantis, who returned to the pole vault runway just nine days after breaking the World Record for the twelfth time. After some uncharacteristic early failures, Duplantis cleared 5.97m, 6.02m and 6.13m on his first attempt. The latter improves his own Meeting Record by one centimetre. Interestingly, it is the first time he has cleared that specific height, outdoors or in.

The Swede took three attempts at 6.29m but was not able to set yet another World Record. He did, however, confirm he would return to Ostrava once more in 2026. Emmanouil Karalis (5.92m) and Kurtis Marschall (5.82m) completed the top-three.

The Meeting Record for the women’s 400m had stood for 42 years at 49.67; Salwa Eid Naser rewrote the Ostrava history books by improving that time by over half a second. The Bahrain athlete ran an impressive 49.15 to convincingly win the last track race of the evening. Behind, both Lynna Irby Jackson (49.82) and Femke Bol (49.98) ran inside 50 seconds. For Bol, that is her fastest time for one lap outdoors, in her first race over the discipline this year.

The preceding race saw Australian teenage superstar Gout Gout race professionally in Europe for the first time. It was a debut appearance to remember, as the seventeen year old improved his own (senior) Oceanic Record to 20.02 (+0.0). Behind were recent Diamond League winner Reynier Mena (20.19) and multiple relay medallist Nethaneel Mitchell Blake (20.60).

Another Oceanic Record came in the women’s 100m, thanks to Zoe Hobbs. The New Zealander improved to 10.94 (+0.6), bettering her previous best of 10.96 from two years ago. However, she had to settle for third, as Thelma Davies ran 10.91 for a Liberian Record in a close finish from Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith (10.93). Brit Amy Hunt, Olympic medallist in the 4x100m relay, was fourth in 11.08.

The men’s 400m was won by Belgian Daniel Segers in 4463, a new PB. Behind, Great Britain’s Samuel Reardon ran his second fastest ever time with 44.99 whilst Canadian Christopher Morales-Williams was third in 45.10.

Fast Middle Distance Races

The remaining two Meeting Records came in the men’s 1500m and women’s 800m. Just five days after breaking the World U20 Record, Phanuel Koech took to the track for only his third 1500m. The youngster looked like a seasoned professional, however, winning in 3:29.05.

It was a fast race behind, with Portugal’s Isaac Nader (3:29.37 NR), 800m specialist and World Indoor Champion Josh Hoey (3:29.75 PB) and Australian junior Cameron Myers (3:29.80) also finishing under the 3:30 barrier. Raphael Pallitsch improved the Austrian Record to 3:32.96 when finishing eighth.

Racing over two laps, World Indoor Champion Prudence Sekgodiso ran 1:57.16 to secure a commanding victory. The South African improved her PB by 0.1 seconds in the process, taking down maria Mutola’s Meeting Record from 2004.

Behind, six women ran under two minutes, including Botswanan Oratile Nowe (1:57.49 NR), Nigist Getachew (1:58.02) and Worknesh Mesele (1:58.40). The earlier ‘b’ race was won by Moroccan Soukaina Hajji in 2:00.09.

The men’s race over the same distance saw victory go to Australian Peter Bol in an impressive 1:43.80. Behind, there were National Records for Marino Bloudek (1:44.02, Croatia) and home athlete Jakub Dudycha (1:44.48). The top-five all finished inside the World Championship qualifying standard of 1:44.50. The earlier ‘b’ race was won by Filip Ostrowski (1:44.74 PB) from fellow Pole Patryk Sierdadzki (1:45.06 PB).

Hurdle Excitement

Dylan Beard and Grant Holloway were both awarded with 13.13 (+0.6) in the men’s 110m hurdles, but it was Dylan who was given the win. The women’s 100m hurdles went as the script predicted, with World Record holder Tobi Amusan a clear victor in 12.45 (+1.4). Viktoria Forster of Slovakia was second in 12.74 and Ireland’s Sarah Lavin third (12.76).

Chris Robinson of the United States won the men’s 400m hurdles in 48.05 from Brazilian Matheus Lima (48.11).

In the Field

Adriana Vilagos continued her excellent season with a best throw of 64.87m to win the women’s javelin ahead of Olympic Champion and Czech-based Haruka Kitaguchi (63.88m). Vilagos’ best throw came in the fourth round and Kitaguchi’s in the first.

Olympic Champion from Tokyo Neeraj Chopra won the men’s competition with a best of 85.29m. A surprise second place went to South African Douw Smit, who threw a PB of 84.12m to finish ahead of Anderson Peters (83.63m).

A home victory came in the women’s pole vault, via Amalie Svabikova. She cleared 4.66m, as did Brazilian Juliana De Menis Campos. However, earlier clearances separated the two.

Countback helped to decide the men’s high jump also, with Dymtryo Nikitin winning with a 2.24m clearance, on countback from Czech favourite Jan Stefela who cleared the same height. It was an Italian one-two in the men’s shot put, with Leonardo Fabbri (21.70m) ahead of compatriot Zane Weir (21.39m).