"VAN" (Sports Desk - 14.02.2026) :: World-leading performances by Bozhidar Sarâboyukov and Audrey Werro were among the highlights at the Belgrade Indoor Meeting – the sixth World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event of the season – in the Serbian capital’s Atletska dvorana on Wednesday (11).
Sarâboyukov won a thrilling long jump clash with a leap of 8.45m – improving on the Bulgarian record and joint world lead of 8.39m he set just three days ago in Metz – while Werro dominated the 800m in a Swiss short track record of 1:57.27. Both were among a series of national and meeting records set as athletes ramp up their preparations for the World Indoor Championships in Poland next month.
European indoor champion Sarâboyukov and multiple global gold medallist Miltiadis Tentoglou traded the lead in the long jump but ultimately the Greek champion had no response to Sarâboyukov’s 8.45m in the penultimate round.
Sarâboyukov started strongly, opening with 8.23m and then going three centimetres farther in the second round, but Tentoglou improved that mark by a single centimetre with his own second jump to take the lead.
But Sarâboyukov was just getting warmed up and the 21-year-old improved to 8.29m in the fourth round and 8.45m in the fifth. Tentoglou closed with 8.26m but had to settle for second place, while Jamaica’s 2024 world indoor bronze medallist Carey McLeod was third on 8.22m. That 8.45m leap moves Sarâboyukov to joint ninth on the world indoor all-time list.
The men’s shot put offered another key clash and saw world indoor silver medallist Roger Steen defeat his US compatriot Jordan Geist, who started as the world leader.
Not only did Steen clinch the win, but he also achieved the farthest indoor throw in the world so far this year, improving on the 22.04m thrown by Geist in Ostrava earlier this month by three centimetres, managing 22.07m in the final round. Steen launched himself into the lead in the third round with 21.50m and improved to 21.60m in the fourth round before that 22.07m from his final attempt. Geist was second with 21.51m this time and Nigeria’s Chukwuebuka Enekwechi was third on 21.28m.
Ivana Španović gave the home crowd cause for early celebration as she twice improved the meeting record in the triple jump. Serbia’s 2023 world long jump champion is now focusing on the triple jump and she recorded 14.19m from her opening attempt before improving to 14.27m in the third round.
It secured her a second win of the season, following the national indoor record of 14.41m she set when competing in the same Atletska dvorana arena last month. Sweden’s double 2021 world U20 champion Maja Åskag finished second on 13.79m.
The field action opened with a home win and closed with one, too, as Serbia’s world bronze medallist Angelina Topić topped the high jump with her third-time clearance of 1.96m, equalling the meeting record. She decided to end her competition after that successful jump and took the win ahead of Montenegro’s Marija Vuković (1.94m). Milica Gardašević also got a win for Serbia, equalling her season’s best with 6.61m in the long jump.
Cr-World Athletics
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