The 21-year-old Parisian, who set the previous record of 17.90 in winning at last year's World Indoor Championships in Doha, recorded his top mark in the fourth of his attempts.

It is just seven centimetres short of his outdoor best of 17.98m, set at theSamsung Diamond League meeting in New York in June last year.

That effort made made him the third best triple jumper of all time behind Kenny Harrison, the 1996 Olympic champion from the United States, and Jonathan Edwards, Olympic champion in 2000, whose world record of 18.29 has stood since 1995.

Tamgho's outdoor season was relatively disappointing in that he only managed a bronze medal at the European Championships in Barcelona, but his marks indoor and out indicate he is one of the main likely challengers to Britain's world champion Phillips Idowu at this year's World Championships in Daegu, and at next year's London Olympics.

France's other rising star, European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre - the first white man to break 10 seconds for the distance - won the 60 metres in 6.58sec, the second fastest time in Europe this year, while Leslie Dhjone won the 400m in 46.13, the fastest European time so far this year.

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