The indoor track and field season heated up over the weekend with several big meets and numerous world-leading performances, which are becoming more significant with the World Indoor Championships just five weeks away.

There were three major events on Saturday, including the Sparkassen-Cup meet, an IAAF Permit event, in Stuttgart, Germany, where Laverne Jones-Ferrette of the U.S. Virgin Islands established herself as the 60-meter World Indoor favorite. Jones-Ferrette won in a world-leading 6.97 seconds, the fastest women's 60-meter time since 1999. Carmelita Jeter's personal best of 7.05 was only good for a relatively distant second.

Entering the meet, the three fastest women's indoor 3,000-meter times had been run in Stuttgart. That number rose to five Saturday, as Ethiopia's Meseret Defar took a run at her world record (8:23.72) set in 2007. She fell a bit short, but her 8:24.46 ranks third all-time, while runner-up Sentayehu Ejigu's 8:25.27 is fourth on the list. Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge won the men's race in a 2010 world best 7:32.99.

A healthy Dayron Robles survived a strong challenge to win the 60-meter hurdles in a world-leading 7.48, edging American David Oliver (7.49). On the women's side, Canada's Priscilla Lopes-Schliep built on her Millrose Games victory by running a world-leading and personal best 7.82 to defeat Lolo Jones (7.97).

Bernard Lagat made his first-ever indoor 5,000-meter race a memorable one at Saturday's Reebok Indoor Games in Boston, slicing more than seven seconds off the U.S. record and finishing in 13:11.51. World record-holder Tirunesh Dibaba, who doesn't plan to run in the World Indoors, won the women's race in 14:44.53.

Terrence Trammell won the men's 60-meter hurdles in 7.49. With Trammell, Robles and Oliver all within .01 of each other on Saturday, the sprint hurdles is shaping up to be one of the World Indoor's most exciting events.

Croatia's Blanka Vlasic set a personal indoor best and tied for third-best all-time by clearing 2.06 meters (6 feet, 9 inches) at Saturday's International High Jump meet in Arnstadt, Germany. Kajsa Bergqvist holds the indoor world mark of 2.08/6-9¾. Vlasic took three shots at 2.09/6-10¼, including one near-miss. Ivan Ukhov won the men's competition (2.35/7-8½), edging World Outdoor champ Yaroslav Rybakov (2.33/7-7¾).

Sunday's Russian Winter meet in Moscow was the weekend's second IAAF Permit event. It was also pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva's season debut. She won by clearing 4.85/15-11, then tried to vault past her 5.00/16-4¾ world indoor record, missing twice - once narrowly - at 5.01/16-5¼, and once at 5.02/16-5½. Watch out for her next competition, however, at the Pole Vault Stars meet in Donetsk, Ukraine on March 6. She set the current indoor mark at Donetsk last year.

Russia's Darya Klishina, the former World Youth and European Junior long jump champion, is now a name to watch at the senior level. The 19-year-old, who's been coached by world champion Mike Powell, won with a world-leading 6.87/22-6½ on Sunday.

Photo: Terrence Trammell is among the top 60-meter hurdlers so far this season. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

The world records in the men's jumping events were all established in the '90s. Those marks weren't seriously threatened in the past decade. Nevertheless, a variety of talented athletes made performer of the decade choices difficult in several jumping events. Here are the top men's performers from the '00s in the long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault.

Long jump. Three men divided the eight major outdoor championships in the past decade, but American Dwight Phillips stands out as the performer of the decade. Phillips won the 2004 Olympic gold medal, plus three World Outdoor and one World Indoor Championship. He also earned gold medals at the 2003-05 World Athletics Finals and took a bronze medal at the 2007 World Championships. Phillips, who overcame some late-decade injuries, finished the '00s strongly, posting the decade's best jump (8.74 meters, 28 feet 8 inches) in 2009. Honorable mentions to Panama's Irving Saladino, who won the 2008 Olympics, 2007 World Championship and 2006 World Athletics Final, plus 2000 Olympic champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba, who also won the World Outdoor and Indoor championships in 2001.

High jump. Nobody dominated outdoor high jumping in the decade, as eight different men divided the eight major championships. The jump of the decade belongs to Russia's Vyacheslav Voronin, who leaped 2.40/7-10½ in 2000. But the performer of the decade was Sweden's Stefan Holm. The 2004 Olympic champion, Holm also earned a silver medal at the 2003 World Outdoor Championships and won the World Athletics Final in 2004. Holm dominated indoors, however, winning four the decade's five World Indoor titles. Honorable mention to Russia's Yaroslav Rybakov, the decade's most prolific medal winner. Rybakov's trophy case includes gold medals from the 2009 World Championships, 2006 World Indoor Championships and 2003 World Athletics Final. Rybakov placed second to Holm at three World Indoor Championships. Rybakov earned two silver medals and one bronze in World Outdoor competition, plus another bronze at the 2008 Olympics. Honorable mention also to 2008 Olympic champion Andrey Silnov of Russia, who won the 2008 World Athletics Final.

Pole vault. This was the most difficult jumps category to judge, as no man dominated pole vaulting in the past decade. Dmitriy Markov of Australia had the decade's top vault, clearing 6.05/19-10 to win the 2001 World Championships, while American Brad Walker was the decade's top major medalist. But performer of the decade honors go to Australia's Steven Hooker, courtesy of his late-decade success. Hooker struck gold at the Beijing games with an Olympic-record leap of 5.96/19-6½, then overcame a serious leg injury to win the 2009 World Championship. Honorable mention to Markov and to 2007 World Champion Walker. Walker also won the 2006 World Indoor Championship and the 2005-07 World Athletics Finals. He had the decade's second-best leap (6.04/19-9¾) in 2008, and earned silver medals at the 2005 World Outdoor Championships and 2008 World Indoor Championships.

Triple jump. Every couple of years, it seemed, a new man emerged to dominate triple jumping in the past decade, beginning with Great Britain's Jonathan Edwards. Edwards set the world record (18.29/60-0) in 1995, remained strong early in the 00s, and gets the nod as the performer of the decade. Edwards won the 2000 Olympic gold, then posted the decade's longest jump, 17.92/58-9½, to win the 2001 World Championship. He also took a silver medal at the 2001 World Indoor Championship. Honorable mentions begin with Sweden's Christian Olsson, who earned a silver at the 2001 World Championships, then won the 2003 World Outdoor title, the 2003-04 World Indoor Championships, the 2004 Olympics and 2003-04 World Athletics Finals. Other honorable mention nods go to American Walter Davis, who won the 2005 World Championship, 2006 World Indoor title and 2007 World Athletics Final, plus Nelson Evora of Portugal, who won the 2007 World Championship and the 2008 Olympic and World Athletics Final titles, and Great Britain's Phillips Idowu, the 2008 World Indoor Champion and 2009 Outdoor Champion.

Photo: Triple jumping great Jonathan Edwards celebrates his victory at the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Stu Forster/Getty Images

The first two IAAF Indoor Permit meets were the highlight track and field events last weekend, but the most impressive performance occurred in a third meet, the Aviva International Match in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday, where Jessica Ennis won the 60-meter hurdles in a British record time of 7.95 seconds. Ennis defeated defending World Indoor champion Lolo Jones of the U.S., who finished in 7.97.

Ennis, the 2009 heptathlon World Champion, also finished a narrow second in the high jump, as her personal best of 1.94 meters (6 feet, 4¼ inches) tied with American Chaunte Howard, though Howard won the event based on fewer misses.

Nevertheless Ennis has begun the season impressively and, schedule permitting, might have considered shooting for multiple gold medals at the World Indoor Championships in March. But with all five pentathlon events set for the second day of the three-day Championship, she'll no doubt settle for being the pentathlon favorite. In the past month she's set indoor personal bests in three of the pentathlon's events - the 60 hurdles, the shot put (13.83/45-4) and the long jump (6.39/20-11½).

In Friday's Millrose Games in New York, American Bernard Lagat won a record eighth Wanamaker Mile, finishing in 3:56.54. He'd been tied with Eamonn Coghlan - who served as Friday's race starter - with seven titles. Also Friday, Christian Cantwell dominated the shot put and served up a winning toss of 21.95/72-0. In the women's 60 meters, 2006 World Indoor champion Lisa Barber of the U.S., who missed most of 2009 with a torn Achilles tendon, edged Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown. Both were clocked in 7.24, followed by American Muna Lee (7.25).

In the second IAAF Permit meet of the weekend, Sunday's BW-Bank Meet in Karlsruhe, Germany, Lolo Jones bounced back with a strong 60-meter hurdles victory in 7.90 seconds, while Laverne Jones-Ferrette set a U.S. Virgin Islands record of 7.09 in her 60-meter heat before winning the final in 7.11. Another athlete on the comeback trail, world steeplechase record holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen - running his first indoor race in almost four years - won the 3,000 meters easily, in 7:43.44.

This weekend's IAAF Permit meets include the Sparkassen Cup in Germany on Saturday and Sunday's Russian Winter meet in Moscow.

Photo: Jessica Ennis acknowledges the crowd at Saturday's Aviva International. Julian Finney/Getty Images

Winter's grip remains firm for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere. In the track and field world, however, the January thaw arrives this weekend with the first two major indoor meets of 2010. Friday's Millrose Games in New York and Sunday's BW-Bank meet in Karlsruhe, Germany are the first two of ten IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings which lead up to the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar in March.

As usual, the Millrose highlight should be the Wanamaker Mile, where Bernard Lagat will seek a record eighth Wanamaker victory. He's currently tied with Eamonn Coghlan at seven. Lagat's main competitors are Kenya's Asbel Kiprop and Andrew Baddeley from Great Britain. The event also boasts an outstanding shot put field of Americans Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson - all former Millrose champions - plus Dan Taylor. In the 60-meter hurdles, 2009 World Championship runner-up Terrence Trammell takes another shot at Berlin's 100-meter hurdles gold medalist, Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados. The signature events on the women's side include the 60 meters, where Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown will face Americans Marshevet Hooker and Muna Lee, and the 60-meter hurdles, featuring Canadians Perdita Felicien and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep plus Americans Tiffany Ofili and Virginia Powell.

The event will be broadcast live on ESPN2 from 8-10 p.m., Eastern Time, in the U.S.

Among the elite competing in Karlsruhe Sunday is two-time steeplechase World Champion and world record-holder Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar, who's been sidelined with injuries for most of the past three years. Shaheen will run in the 3,000 meters. Other notables include German high jumper Ariane Friedrich, Ethiopia's 2008 World Indoor 1500-meter champion, Gelete Burka, and American hurdler Allen Johnson, 38, a four-time World Champion.

Photo: Bernard Lagat seeks a record eighth Wanamaker Mile victory Friday. Jamie McDonald/Getty Images