New spectator record at the Sparkassen Indoor Meeting! 3250 enthusiastic athletics fans watched this year's indoor meeting of LG Olympia Dortmund last Saturday in Dortmund's Helmut-Körnig-Halle, which was once again part of the World Athletics Indoor Tour, and were delighted with three new meeting records and three world lead performances.

The Sparkassen Indoor Meeting kicked off with the women's shot put. For the first time in the programme, the organizers managed to win Olympic champion Yemisi Ogunleye (MTG Mannheim) for a start in Dortmund and built a top-class field of participants around her. With a strong 18.98 meters, Ogunleye ultimately won the competition ahead of Alina Kenzel (VfB Stuttgart; 18.16m) and Jorinde van Klinken (Netherlands; 17.46m), putting her at the top of this year's world best list. “Dortmund made it easier for me to get back into the competition atmosphere, the crowd and the atmosphere were very appreciative,” said Yemisi Ogunleye in the interview afterwards.

The next highlight was provided by Jessica-Bianca Wessolly in the women's 200 meters. In a fast 23.02 seconds, she not only ran a personal indoor best, but also improved Lilly Kaden's three-year-old meeting record by almost half a second. Second and third place went to Esperança Cladera (Spain; 23.70 seconds) and Martyna Kotwiła (Poland; 23.78 seconds).

Joshua Hartmann (ASV Cologne) secured the third meeting record of the day in the men's 60 meters. He broke the existing record in the preliminary heat in 6.57 seconds. The final was the expected close race, which Joshua Hartmann won in 6.56 seconds, just ahead of Reynier Mena (Cuba; 6.57 seconds) and Henrik Larsson (Sweden; 6.58 seconds). “It was a good day to start with, but I would have liked to have started the indoor season with the German record. I missed out on one or two points today and hope to be able to go one better next time,” said Joshua Hartmann afterwards.

Malaika Mihambo (LG Kurpfalz) made a promising comeback in the women's long jump after having to end last year's outdoor season prematurely due to health problems. With 6.79 meters, she not only won the competition, but also took the lead in the world's best list for the year. She was also only three centimeters short of Khaddi Sagnia's meeting record. Mikaelle Assani (SCL Heel Baden-Baden) jumped into second place with 6.67 meters. Third place went to Filippa Fotopoulou (Cyprus), who set her own national record with 6.53 meters. Dortmund's Samira Attermeyer jumped to a strong fourth place with a new indoor best of 6.51 meters.

There were many personal records and a new world lead for the year in the women's 1500 meters. Portugal's Patrícia Silva won in 4:12.26 minutes ahead of Lise Thimon (France; 4:16.37 minutes) and Jetske van Kampen (Netherlands; 4:16.50 minutes). In the men's race, Marius Probst (TV Wattenscheid 01) won in 3:38.77 minutes ahead of Amine Brahimi (Algeria; 3:40.34 min.) and James Gormley (Great Britain; 3:40.56 min.).

There was a small surprise in the women's 800 meter race, which was ultimately won by the Norwegian Malin Nyfors in 2:04.14 minutes, five hundredths of a second ahead of Georgia-Maria Despollari (Greece). The best German in this race was local hero Karolina Haas (LG Olympia Dortmund), who finished seventh in a new indoor best time of 2:06.61 minutes, beating last year's winner Jana Becker (Königsteiner LV) and relay world champion Lisanne de Witte (Netherlands), among others. Patryk Sieradzki won the men's race in 1:47.52 minutes, just ahead of Noah Kibet (Kenya; 1:47.54 minutes). Fabian Dammermann won the 400 meters in a new personal record of 46.71 seconds. Danylo Danylenko (Ukraine; 47.69 sec.) and Lukas Krappe (SCC Berlin; 47.75 sec.) took second and third place.

The men's pole vault competition is always a highlight in the Helmut-Körnig-Halle. This was won on Saturday by the Belgian Ben Broeders with a jump of 5.72 meters. The Germans Torben Blech (TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen; 5.62m) and Oleg Zernikel (ASV Landau; 5.50m) jumped to silver and bronze respectively.

Sam Geddes provided another surprise in the women's 60 meters. The Australian, who is currently living in Dortmund for several weeks in order to qualify for the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing (China) in March, improved her personal best to 7.30 seconds in the preliminaries, thereby breaking the Australian indoor record of former hurdles sprinter Sally Pearson. Although she missed out on another best time in the subsequent final, she still secured victory in 7.31 seconds, followed by Rafailía Spanoudáki-Hatziríga (Greece; 7.35 seconds) in second place and Aleksandra Piotrowska (Poland) and Bassant Hemida (Egypt), who shared third place in 7.37 seconds.

For the first time, the program also included two 60-meter para-sport interludes. LGO newcomer Marcel Böttger won the men's race in 7.37 seconds, while Dutchwoman Zara Temmink was successful in the women's race in 8.14 seconds. In addition, many young talents from LG Olympia Dortmund competed, for whom it is always something very special to run in front of such a large home crowd.