LIEVIN, France (AFP) — Jamaica's Lerone Clarke threw down the gauntlet a month ahead of the World Indoor Athletics Championships as he posted the fastest 60 metres time this season here on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old Commonwealth Games champion timed 6.5sec to improve his best time this campaign by two hundreths of a second as he finished clear of France's European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre (6.57sec).

While Lemaitre failed to better his personal best over the distance of 6.55sec, he was making his first appearance of the season.

His compatriot Romain Mesnil booked his ticket to the indoor championships in Istanbul (March 9-11) as the three-time outdoor world medallist in the pole vault achieved the qualifying mark of 5.72 metres.

It wasn't good enough for the 34-year-old to win the event, that going to Germany's Raphael Holzdeppe, who while he also only managed 5.72m, won on a number of attempts taken to reach the mark.

The women's pole vault was won by the previously dominant Russian superstar Yelena Isinbayeva, who won with a vault of 4.81m, but went on to fail three times at 4.91m.

Other world bests for the season were recorded by Morocco's Malicka Akkaoui and Adam Kszczot of Poland in the women's and men's 800m, respectively, with times of 1min 59.01sec and 1:44.57.

Morocco's Abdalaati Iguider posted the fastest time of the year in the men's 1,500m as well as he finished in 3:34.10.

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