Double European Indoor 400m champion David Gillick gave a stunning display of indoor two lap running in Dusseldorf to make his intentions clear about going for a third successive crown in Torino in three weeks time.

The 25-year-old Irishman who was competing in his first meeting of the season threw down the gauntlet to the rest of Europe with a new world leading time of 46.18 to beat Italian Claudio Licciardello who also ran a season's best of 46.57 to equal is lifetime best in second.

Still undecided about defending his title, the time and victory should encourage the Dubliner to make the commitment clear to go for a third successive title in Torino to add to the victories achieved in Madrid in 2005 and Birmingham 2007.

A sell-out crowd of 2,000 spectators witnessed a total of three world best times including Gillick's at the annual European Athletics Permit Meeting held in the Sportpark Duesseldorf arena.In the men's 800m, much was expected from 2004 Russian Olympic Champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy but in the end he had to be forced to settle for third in 1:47.49 behind Olympic 800m silver medallist Ismail Ahmed Ismail who won in 1:46.76 over Kenyan Boaz Lalang in1:47.24.

Defending European Indoor 60m Hurdles champion Gregory Sedoc of the Netherlands showed he will once again be the favourite to land the title in Torino with a sparkling piece of running to take second behind Bahamian Shamar Sands in 7.54.

Indeed Sedoc ran a new Dutch record of 7.52 in the heats an achievement equalled by Czech rising star Petr Svoboda who rewrote the Czech record with a 7.55 clocking also in the heats.

The scene is now set for a mouth-watering duel at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino.

The men's Pole Vault was always going to be a crowd favourite boasting a host of world class home based vaulters but when push came to show it was the unheralded Tobias Scherbarth who came out on top with a 5.60m effort beating such luminaries as Danny Ecker, 5th in 5.50m, Bjorn Otto joint 8th in 5.40 along with European Athletics Rising Star Raphael Holzdeppe and the ever green Tim Lobinger in 11th with the same height.

There was a new Norwegian record in the women's 60m Hurdles as Christina Vukicevic rewrote the record books with an 8.02 clocking in the heats and followed up with an 8.07 clocking in the final to take an impressive second behind American Yvette Lewis.

Finally, there was yet another national record of note in the women's Triple Jump when Slovakian Dana Veldáková jumped 14.30 to set a new record for her country.