TROST 200 AND BARSHIM 234 WORLD LEADS

TRINEC-VENDRYNE (CZE, Jan 29): 9th Moravia High Jump Tour ended with excellent world leading marks by Tour winners young Italian Alessia Trost 200 cm and Qatari olympic medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim 234. Both were also overall tour winners with 395 cm (Trost, new Tour best) and 464 cm for Barshim, both 1000 USD top overall prize. Packed tennis hall of Trinec-Vendryne (1500) saw top jumping. First Trost went smoothly over all heights and as only one over 194 she was the winner. Then went straight to two meters and cleared in first as second best Italian ever and national U23 record. Her improvement in last two weeks is 8 cm since 2012. She then had two very decent attempts at 202 what would be new meet record (201 by Vlasic in 2010) and confirmed her big potential for future. „I feel amazed. I just trained hard in the winter and did not know exactly what to expect from the competitions. Even 198 cm was a lot and beautiful result to me. 200 meters is like a bonus and unexpected result for many of us. Just imagine that last year I was jumping only around 192, so it is a big move forward. Of course, I was a bit scared of 202 as all heights with number 2 at the beginning are big in my eyes. But I tried to focus on the attempt and to see what happened. It was very emotional feeling here and crowd helped me a lot by their support – I felt like I am a part of this event.” Second Venelina Veneva struggled with hamstring injury but still managed nice 191 clearance to be second and Emma Green-Tregaro and Olena Kholosha had close jumps at 194 but ended in a tie for third with 191. Men competition started with huge surprise when Olympic winner Ivan Ukhov did not clear 220. „I do not know what happened, it is was more mental, after two failures i did not cope with the pressure,” he said afterwards. The battle for win started at 231 when three remained. Aleksey Dmitrik cleared in first while Qatari Mutaz Barshim only in third. Home hero did not make it but Jaroslav Baba improved his season best to 228 and as third beat a strong field of jumpers. At 234 Dmitrik failed (but with solid attempt) and Barshim cleared what was new world lead and equaled the meet record of Ukhov from 2010. Dmitrik passed his two attempts at 234 and tried at 236 not bad, but the bar failed. Barshim after first no-clearance at 236 and after Dmitrik was out saved his remaining two attempts at 238. Both jumps were close and excellent, he was very determined to go for the new Asian indoor record. „I tried and I think I can do it at one of the next meetings,” he said. Interesting to note the indoor all-time best for paralympian (category F46) Maciej Liepato of Poland who cleared 215 and tied with Ukhov.

OTHER NEWS AND RESULTS

SOCHI (RUS): 20km race walk Beijing Olympic and three-time world champion Olga Kaniskina isn’t sure yet whether she’ll perform at World Championships 2013. 28-year-old Russian told about her doubts to national Media despite the fact that she already has wild-card to compete in Moscow as reigning world champion. “I had World championships in Moscow as a goal when I have made the decision to prolong my career for one more year after London Olympics. If I am not ready what will be the sense of performance? Everything will depend on my preparation. I’ll able to estimate my real shape in summer only. It was difficult to change my opinion and begin new preparation for new season. But I successfully coped with my mood and now we continue our usual work.” Kaniskina also informed she will not compete at National race walk championships in February and going to come back home after preparation in Sochi’s training camp.

VIENNA (AUT, Jan 29): Austrian Andreas Vojta clocked at Vienna Classic Indoor meet 3:39.70 in the 1500 m to qualify for European Indoor Championships. US Kevin Craddock achieved world leading 7.60 in heats of 60 m hurdles. In finals Briton Gianni Frankis got 7.67. His team-mate Sarah Claxton got 8.11 in the 60m hurdles. Croatian national mark for Ivan Horvat 551 in the pole vault. Andreas Rapatz achieved another Goteborg standard 1:47.91.

ZAPORIZHZHYA (UKR, January 29): During first day of National Team Championships 200m reigning European champion Mariya Ryemyen won women 60m in 7.16. Viktoriya Pyatachenko finished second with 7.35sec. Ihor Bodrov was the best man at this distance – 6.76s. Serhiy Kopanayko and combined eventer Anastasiya Mokhnyuk won 60m hurdles – 7.87 and 8.38sec respectively. Mokhnyuk was the best in long jump event -6.40m. 20-year-old Artem Spytko won man long jump with indoor PB 7m64cm over world silver medalist in Heptathlon Oleksiy Kasyanov 7.60m. Volodymyr Kyts finished first at 1500m clocked 3:45.34. Olha Holodna set personal best in shot put – 18m24cm. Valentyna Zhudina was the fastest woman at 3000m steeplechase 9:30.99 and Olha Yakovenko at 5000m race walk 22:13.96. Oleksandr Venhlovsky walked 5000m on 19:20.89 world leading. Vladyslav Revenko cleared 550 in pole vault. Hanna Melnychenko scored 4623 points to win women pentathlon (60H-8.30s PB; HJ-1.80m; SP-13.30m, LJ-6.39m, 800m-2:17.01).

PRAHA (CZE, Jan 29): European champion Pavel Maslak started his indoor season with fast 33.16 in the 300 m at an open meet in Stromovka Hall.

BRUSSELS (BEL) : Hurdler Eline Berings told Belgian media she is back in good shape after clocking 7.44 at the Flemish championships. Berings claims she has become stronger and faster and will compete in her first hurdles race in Linz on Thursday. After that she is scheduled to compete at the Perfiction indoor meeting and at the Record Bank Flanders indoor meeting on February 10th.

AMSTERDAM (NED): The Dutch athletics federation has announced they are adding two new medals to their medal tally. Discus thrower Rutger Smith has been invited to receive his bronze medal from last year’s European championships when coming to the European indoor championships in Goteborg in March. Smith is receiving the medal after Hongarian Zoltan Kovago lost his medal due to inconsistancies with anti-doping tests. Also Hilda Kibet is receiving a bronze medal for her performance at the 10.000m at the 2010 European athletics championships in Barcelona. Russian Inga Abitova loses her medal due to irregular blood levels.

BERLIN (GER): Hendrik Gruber is set to jump the pole vault standard for the European indoor championships and hopes to be among the top three best German performers. Gruber confirmed for leichtathletik.de he will compete at the indoor meeting in Cottbus after which he will compete in Karlsruhe, Dusseldorf and finally in Ghent, Belgium. Gruber holds a personal best of 570 and recently joined the training group of German pole vault star Bjorn Otto.

BERLIN (GER): Corinna Harrer confirmed for leichathletik.de her main goal of the season is the European U23 championships in Tampere this summer. Harrer believes she can do well and possibly take the title. The 22-year old also aims at qualifying for the IAAF World championships in Moscow in August.

MOSCOW (RUS): In preparation for the next World Championships IAAF Coordination Commission visit concerning Moscow 2013, IAAF Vice President Sergey Bubka and IAAF General Secretary Essar Gabriel met with the Vice-Mayor of Moscow Alexander Gorbenko last week in the Russian capital. Also attending the meeting were ARAF President and IAAF Treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev, Head of Moscow Sports Committee Andrey Vorobyev, DSZM Director General Aleksandr Polinsky, and 1996 Olympic 1500m champion Svetlana Masterkova. Informs IAAF.