Ukhov clears 2.33m, tries 2.37m, Majewski, Isinbayeva have wins, by Alfons Juck, note by Larry Eder

UKHOV GOES 233 AND TRIES 237

BANSKA
BYSTRICA (SVK, Feb 8): Ivan Ukhov waited until all other competitors had been
eliminated and then used his final jump at 2.33 to steal the win.  The Russian had been forced to go to a third
attempt at 2.31 as well and was clearly not his dominant self tonight.  He ended the evening with three
undistinguished attempts at a would-be world-leading 2.37. Until that
moment, Jesse Williams was leading the competition with a clean chart
through 2.28 and a second-jump clearance at 2.31. A new name in elite
high-jumping circles emerged tonight as 27-year-old Slovak Michal Kabelka
improved on his three-year-old 2.24 PB at three consecutive heights, ending the
evening with an amazing 2.31, only one centimeter off the Slovak national
record.  His outdoor PB stands at a meager
2.21 but will surely improve as soon as the snows melt. Kabelka tied for third
with Greek jumper Kostadinos Baniotis, who had two excellent tries at a would-be
PB 2.33.  Jaroslav Baba ended in fifth at
2.28, having passed 2.31.

VICTORIES FOR MICHALSKI, MAJEWSKI AND ISINBAYEVA IN BYDGOSZCZ

BYDGOSZCZ
(POL, Feb 8): Poland’s top indoor meeting, the field events-only Pedro’s Cup in
Bydgoszcz (EA Indoor Permit), saw victories for the Polish pair of pole vaulter
Lukasz Michalski, shot putter Tomasz Majewski and Russia’s pole vault star
Yelena Isinbayeva on Wednesday. Michalski, fourth at last summer’s World
Championships, came out on top of the men’s pole vault at the European
Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting when he equalled his indoor personal best of
5.72m in Bydgoszcz’s Lucznicka Hall. There were still four men in the
competition at that height but Michalski was the only one to go clear, getting
over on his third attempt, before having three failures at 5.80m. Czech
Republic’s Jan Kudlička and Great Britain’s Steve Lewis shared second place
with both men having no failures up to and including 5.60m, which equalled
Kudlička’s personal best. Germany’s Karsten Dilla was also over 5.60m but made
that height with his second attempt and had to settle for fourth place. It was
not a good night for men who have stood on top of the podium at World
Championships. Italy’s 2003 pole vault world champion Guiseppe Gibilisco could
do no better than 5.40m and was fifth while Poland’s 2011 Athlete of the Year
and current world champion Paweł Wojciechowski, who also won at the 2011
European Athletics U23 Championships, only got over 5.20m. Wojciechowski is
still struggling to regain his fitness after suffering a broken cheekbone
in a freak training accident on 7 December, when a pole slipped in
his hands and struck him in the face, leading to him missing training for three
weeks at the end of last year. Another home victory came when 2008 Olympic
Games champion Tomasz Majewski won the shot put with a heave of 21.05m in
the third round, moving up to second place in the 2012 European rankings. Majewski
had a good competition and the worst of his six attempts was 20.54m but he
could never relax as the United States’ 2009 world champion Christian Cantwell
was always pressing and reached 20.96m with his second attempt. Portugal’s
Marco Fortes finished third with a national indoor record of 20.77m, his
second of the winter having reached 20.57m in the German city of Chemnitz last
month. He was just 12 centimetres short of his Portuguese outdoor record. The
women’s pole vault clash between world record holder Isinbayeva and Great
Britain’s 20-year-old Holly Bleasdale, who is third on the indoor all-time list
after she cleared 4.87m in the French town of Villeurbane, didn’t quite live up
to expectations. However, Isinbayeva will still be glad she got a win over
the woman who has been touted as her successor as the queen of her event. She
opened at 4.68m, getting over the height at the second time of asking and it
proved to be enough for victory. Bleasdale had come in at 4.60m and cleared
that comfortably before needing three attempts to get over 4.68m. Both women
then failed at 4.80m and so the honours were taken by the 2004 and 2008 Olympic
champion. Poland’s 2009 World Championships gold medallist Anna Rogowska had
her first competition of the year and finished third after clearing 4.60m on
her third attempt. She passed 4.68m in a bid to reclaim supremacy but then
failed three times at 4.74m. Russia’s 2010 European Athletics Championships
gold medallist Svetlana Feofanova finished fifth with 4.52m.