Weekly Review: Rojas Jumps 14.95m in Season Debut, Sarâboyukov WL of 8.45m

The biggest competition on the global calendar this week was the Belgrade Indoor Meeting in Serbia, where we saw many of the top athletes in the world take another step forward in their preparation for the World Athletics Indoor Championships and beyond. Top athletes were also in action in World Athletics Silver Tour meeting across the United States and in Czechia.

Among some of the top performances this week were world leads in the men’s 60-meter, women’s 60-meter, women’s triple jump, and men’s hurdles.

Here’s a look at some of the most notable performances from the past seven days.

The Oval Update Global Performance of the Week

Our pick for Global Performance of the Week comes from the women’s triple jump, where world record holder Yulimar Rojas propelled herself to her farthest jump since rupturing her Achilles tendon in April 2024. She jumped 14.95 meters at the Spanish Indoor Club Championships to take a 20-centimeter world lead over Cuba’s Leyanis Pérez Hernández.

It’s been a long road to recovery for Rojas, but the 30-year-old is continuing to look more like her old self. Last year, in her first year back from injury, she opened her season at the World Championships with a leap of 14.49 meters in the preliminary and then 14.76 meters in the final to capture bronze after a string of four consecutive golds.

She unfortunately missed the 2024 Olympics and wasn’t able to defend her 2020 title.

It’s rare for a woman to go over 15.00 meters in the triple jump, with only 30 women ever achieving this feat. Rojas looks to be in form to go over this barrier again in the near future.

Sprints: Julien Alfred Runs 6.99s in the 60m, Jordan Anthony Runs 6.42s

Julien Alfred broke her own world lead this weekend when she ran 6.99 seconds in Fayetteville at the Tyson Invitational to set a new world lead. The mark broke her own previous world lead of 7.00 seconds, set a week ago.

On the men’s side, American Jordan Anthony went 6.43 seconds at the Tyson Invitational to take a sizeable world lead over Sunday Akintun, who ran 6.48 seconds in Russia the week before. Anthony is the 2025 NCAA Division I Champion in the 100-meter.

Adaejah Hodge ran the fastest women’s 200-meter short track time of the year with 22.51 seconds at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational. Stacey Ann Williams ran the second fastest time in the world this week with 22.61 seconds.

Noah Lyles appeared in a competition for the second time this season, running 20.56 seconds in Fayetteville. It’s his second race this season after running 32.15 seconds in the short track 300-meter at the New Balance Invitational.

Khaleb McRae ran the fastest 400-meter of the year with 44.52 seconds, also at the Tyson Invitational.

We also saw some fast times this week in the hurdles, with 7.82 seconds and 7.83 seconds by Christina Clemons and Emmi Scales, respectively. These are the second and third-fastest times in the world so far this year. Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska continues to hold the fastest time this year with 7.78 seconds.

On the men’s side, Trey Cunningham ran the fastest 60-meter hurdles time in the world with 7.37 seconds at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational, taking the win over Ja’Kobe Tharp’s fourth fastest time this year, 7.46 seconds. In Europe, Jakub Szymański ran the second fastest time with 7.43 seconds.

Middle distance: Keely Hodgkinson Opens with 1:56.33

Keely Hodgkinson opened her season with a world-leading time in Birmingham of 1:56.33. Across Europe, Audrey Werro ran the next fastest time in the world this year with 1:57.27 to set a new Swiss National Record, breaking her previous record of 1:57.49.

Cooper Lutkenhaus ran 1:44.03 at the Sound Invite, the third fastest time in the world this year. The 17-year-old smashed his previous U20 World Record set near the end of January by more than a second.

Also at the Sound Invite, Cole Hocker ran the fastest 1,500-meter time in the world this year at 3:30.80 to take home first.

Andrew Hunter ran 13:10.87 in the 5,000-meter run to capture the world lead. Abdihamid Nur ran the second fastest time this year with 13.11.59.

In the Field: Bozhidar Sarâboyukov Jumps 8.45 meters

Olympic bronze medalist Elanor Patterson cleared 1.97 meters at the High Jump Meeting Beskyd Bar in Czechia to tie for the third-highest mark in the world so far.

As we mentioned, Yulimar Rojas jumped 14.95 meters to set a world lead in the women’s triple jump. Notably, Thea LaFond also went 14.62 meters, for the third farthest jump in the world this year.

We also saw a new leader in the men’s triple jump, although we still haven’t seen anybody go over 17.00 meters. Russell Robinson is now the world leader with 16.98 meters.

In the long jump, Bozhidar Sarâboyukov set a new personal best and national Bulgarian record of 8.45 meters in Belgrade to take over the world lead of 8.39 meters that he previously shared with Mattia Furlani. They both set this mark at the same competition last weekend in France. This already marks the fourth time this season that Sarâboyukov has gone over 8.20 meters.

Double Olympic Champion Miltiadis Tentoglou set a season’s best of 8.27 meters to finish second in Serbia, and Carey McLeod finished third with 8.22 meters. In the United States, Cordell Tinch set the third farthest jump this year with 8.29 meters.

We saw some more big performances in the shot put with Jessica Schilder setting a world lead of 20.49 meters to move ahead of Sarah Mitton on the world top list. On the men’s side, Roger Steen took over the world lead with a throw of 22.07 meters. The world lead was previously held by Jordan Geist, who threw 22.04 meters twice the week before. He threw 21.51 meters this weekend in Belgrade.

What’s Coming Up?

The next gold meeting on the World Athletics Indoor Tour is the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophée EDF on Thursday night, followed by the ORLEN Copernicus Cup on February 22.