When the list of British lottery funded athletes was announced last October, the men’s high jump was one of the hardest-hit events with five of the country’s best male jumpers – including three Olympic finalists – getting cut from the programme.

But the lack of support has clearly fired up British high jumpers over the winter, and just one week after Robbie Grabarz leapt to the top of the world season lists with 2.34m, former UK indoor champion Samson Oni recaptured his best ever form by equalling his own PB in the Czech town of Hustopeče.

Competing in the first leg of the Moravian high jump tour, Oni leapt 2.31m to finish third against a quality field, equal with world indoor champion Ivan Ukhov. Oni went on to attempt 2.33m and was extremely close on his final jump. World silver medallist Aleksey Dmitrik came out on top with a world-leading 2.35m and had a narrow failure at a would-be Russian indoor record of 2.41m. Olympic champion Andrey Silnov was second with 2.31m.

The Aviva International in Glasgow may have been the centerpiece of the indoor action in the UK over the weekend, but many other athletes were in action at the other end of the country at the London Games in Lee Valley. European junior silver medallist Andrew Pozzi kick-started his senior career with a huge PB over 60m hurdles, clocking 7.66 – the second-fastest time ever by a British 19-year-old behind Colin Jackson, and good enough for 10th on the UK all-time list.

Two former world youth champions – Asha Philip and Jodie Williams – clashed in the women’s 60m. The latter, the current world and European junior sprint champion, was perhaps the more favoured, but it was her training partner Philip who came out on top – twice. Philip, who returned last year from a three-year injury spell, won the first round, 7.30 to 7.31, before going quicker in the final with a personal best of 7.24 to Williams’ 7.33 (watch the video here). European under-23 bronze medallist Andrew Robertson set a PB to win the men’s 60m in 6.65.

Madison Square Garden in New York played host to the US Open on Saturday – a meeting which attracted many of the world’s top stars. European silver medallist Tiffany Porter finished a close second to world indoor champion Lolo Jones in the rarely-run 50m hurdles to smash the British record. Porter clocked 6.83 to Jones’ 6.78 – the fastest time in the world for 13 years.

Former world record-holder Asafa Powell overcame a minor stumble at the start to win the men’s 50m in 5.64, 0.03 ahead of training partner Nesta Carter. World and Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown made it a Jamaican double when winning the women’s 50m sprint by a comfortable margin in 6.08 – the fastest time in the world since 1999.

Former world champion Sanya Richards-Ross has not competed indoors since 2006, but the American returned to the boards with a bang at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, setting world-leading times in the 200m (23.18) and 400m (51.45). While Commonwealth champion Boaz Lalang was well and truly beaten over 800m in Glasgow, his younger brother Lawi Lalang was in better form and set a world-leading mark in the mile with 3:55.09.

At the same meeting, Britain’s Tom Farrell finished fourth in the 3000m with a personal best of 7:52.38 – the second-fastest indoor performance ever by a British under-23 athlete. But it wasn’t the fastest performance of the weekend by a British athlete in that event.

Having returned from a doping suspension last year, Laverne Jones-Ferrette clocked a world-leading 7.08 over 60m at the Houston Invitational, beating former world leader Murielle Ahoure (7.23).

European silver medallist Chris Thompson made an encouraging start to his Olympic campaign when making his indoor 3000m debut. Finishing second at the UW Invitational in Seattle, the 30-year-old clocked a UK-leading time of 7:49.14 – his second-fastest ever for the distance under any conditions.

The Texas A&M Mondo Challenge was one of the other key US meetings of the weekend. Demetrius Pinder of the Bahamas clocked a world-leading 20.53 over 200m – faster than his outdoor PB and breaking the national indoor record set by former world indoor champion Dominic Demeritte.

The multi-eventers were also in form. World indoor heptathlon record-holder Ashton Eaton competed in three events with solid performances in each – 8.04m in the long jump, 7.73 in the 60m hurdles and 47.97 in the 400m. Meanwhile Eaton’s girlfriend, Brianne Thiesen, set a Canadian record of 4550 in the pentathlon.

Elsewhere in the US, Florida teenager Marvin Bracy made a remarkable breakthrough over 55m with a 6.08 clocking at the Jimmy Carnes Youth Invitational in Gainesville. It is generally a rarely-run event, but is more popular in the US and Bracy’s time is just 0.09 shy of the world senior record. Bracy’s 6.08 (worth around 6.54 for 60m) is also the fastest time in the world since 1999 and is 0.01 short of the world junior record. Meanwhile, at the Penn State National Invitational in Philadelphia Jarret Eaton set a world-leading 7.49 for 60m hurdles.

There were several top performance in Europe over the past weekend too. In Antwerp, world champion Anna Chicherova equalled her own world-leading high jump of 2.00m before some solid attempts at 2.02m. But more notable was the return of Tia Hellebaut.

The former heptathlete from Belgium retired after winning the Olympic high jump title in 2008. After giving birth to her first child, she returned to action in 2010 and finished a respectable fifth at the Europeans. She took last year out to have her second child, but is now back in action once more and jumped 1.95m to finish second to Chicherova in front of a home crowd.

Former world champion Reese Hoffa provided the highlight at the Erdgas Meeting in Chemnitz, winning the shot with a world-leading 21.87m and defeating world champion David Storl (20.75m). Former Briton Tim Abeyie – boosted by the motivation of potentially running at the London 2012 Games under the flag of Ghana – recaptured his best ever form to equal his 60m PB of 6.64.

At the Ukraine Cup in Zaporizhzhya, former European indoor silver medallist Oleksiy Kasyanov put together a string of solid performances – including three PBs – to set a world-leading heptathlon score of 6237. Meanwhile in Bordeaux, Felix Sanchez came within 0.01 of his own world indoor 400m hurdles record with a 49.74 clocking, a couple of seconds ahead of Britain’s Rick Yates (51.52). The other highlight of the meeting was the men’s 3000m, which was won by Ethiopia’s Abiyote Abinet in a world-leading 7:44.20, leading two other athletes under 7:45 – Yohan Durand (7:44.46) and Yoann Kowal (7:44.63).

While the rest of the world has been getting stuck into the indoor season, athletes in the Southern hemisphere are competing outdoors – including Australia’s world 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson. Competing at the Adelaide Track Classic, Pearson battled strong headwinds to win the 100m in 11.32 (-1.4m/s) and the 200m in 23.14 (-3.6m/s).