Nelvis Hurdles World-Leading 7.83 to Upstage Lavillenie and Barshim in Malmo

Published by IAAF on February 25, 2015

Sharika Nelvis upstaged global superstars Renaud Lavillenie and Mutaz Barshim with the performance of the night at the Malmo Games, the US sprint hurdler flying to a world-leading 60m hurdles time of 7.83 on Wednesday (25).

Nelvis had showed she was in great form in the past two weeks, successively setting personal bests and world-leading times of 7.91 and 7.87 at the Millrose Games in New York and the IAAF Indoor Permit meeting in Birmingham on the past two Saturdays, but she won her sixth successive competition thanks to a blazing start.

"I knew I was going to race good," said 24-year-old Nelvis after the race, clearly set to make an impact in her first year as a professional athlete.

By the second set of hurdles, she was well clear of her rivals and the only question remaining was just how big her margin of victory was going to be.

Alina Talay confirmed her status as the gold medal favourite for next week’s European Indoor Championships but the Belarus athlete was 0.1 in arrears of Nelvis, finishing second in 7.93.

Lavillenie continued his unbeaten indoor season with a second-time clearance at 5.92m before three unsuccessful attempts at what would have been a world-leading 6.03m, having plenty of height with his second effort but just coming down on the bar.