Monte-Carlo - In the third installment of their eight edition review of the highlights of the 2006 Athletics year, A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava browse over the JUMPS

MEN - Jumps

High Jump
Andrey Silnov, 22, emerged as a new Russian power clearing a world leading 2.37m height in Monaco in August. Silnov had a steady season beginning with a personal best of 2.28m from 2005. He jumped 2.35 indoors in February and started the outdoor season well too.

Following his win at the National Championships, Silnov won the European Cup Super League in Málaga. Silnov peaked at the right time too, he won the European Championships in Gothenburg with a personal best of 2.36m and followed that with another PB 2.37m in Monaco.

The Russian faded a bit later finishing second both at the World Athletics Final and the World Cup. Sweden had another star in addition to Olympic champion Stefan Holm in 2006. Linus Thörnblad emerged as a force early during the indoor season. Thörnblad grabbed a surprise bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships, but did very little special during the outdoor season before the European Championships. But Thörnblad had timed his best performance well, he jumped a personal best of 2.34m in Gothenburg and was unlucky to finish only fourth behind Holm taking the bronze. The young Swede went on to record a big win at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart at 2.33m. 31-year-old Czech Tomas Janku took a surprising silver in Gothenburg setting a personal best of 2.34m in the process. Overall depth was a bit better than last year, there were 25 men over 2.30m, 2005 had 23, in 2004 there were 21 and 24 in 2003. Russia and USA share the top country title, both have 13 athletes in the world top 100.

High Jump World Ranking

High Jump Performance List


Pole Vault
Following his Commonwealth Games win, 24-year-old Steve Hooker (AUS) came to Europe to record an impressive season including a 5.96m personal best in Berlin and a World Cup win. Hooker finished the season ranked number one having soon promise for many years following his fourth place finish at the 2000 World Junior Championships.

Last year he raised his personal best to 5.87m, but was not yet ready for a steady European summer season. During 2006 Hooker was the best of the vaulters finishing at or near the top in most meetings. Countryman Paul Burgess came closest to Hooker’s level. Burgess, who jumped 6.00m last year, set his season’s best 5.92m in Germany in July and finished in top three in many important meetings. The Australian was at his best level at the end of the season finishing second behind Hooker (5.96m) in Berlin at 5.91m and then winning the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart.

There was also one new six metre man, Brad Walker (USA), who won the World Indoor Championships in Moscow in March, vaulted 6.00m in Jockgrim, Germany, in July. There were 16 vaulters over 5.80m in 2006, 15 in 2005, 19 in 2004 and 10 in 2003. USA is the top country with 24 athletes in the world top 100, Germany is second with 13 and Russia third at eight.

Pole Vault World Ranking

Pole Vault Performance List


Long Jump
In 2005 Irving Saladino (PAN) rose to a new level setting a national record of 8.29m in June. He finished sixth at the World Championships in Helsinki, but he was a different athlete coming into the 2006 season. In the 17 finals of the season Saladino grabbed 15 wins and two second places. Following his silver medal finish at the World Indoor Championships, the newcomer won all the important outdoor meetings of the season.

The season overall was a high standard one, but it was Saladino who was the commanding figure in 2006. Saladino’s season was just huge, with the worst result he achieved being 8.29m, which is equal to his personal best before 2006. The Panamian won the World Cup, the World Athletics Final, Zürich, Brussels, Berlin, Rome, Athens and Oslo meetings to cap an impressive season. Ignisious Gaisah (GHA) won the World Indoor Championships and beat Saladino twice, but Saladino was clearly better at 8-2 wins. Gaisah won the African Championships and set a personal best of 8.43m finishing second behind Saladino in Rome. Gaisah’s season faded a bit in August when he could only finish sixth in three consecutive meetings in Zürich, Brussels and Berlin and then fourth at the World Athletics Final and the World Cup. Young Italian Andrew Howe did not compete as much as Saladino and Gaisah, but posted very good results during the season. Howe won the European Cup Super League, set a personal best 8.41m in Rome and won the European Championships. There were 25 athletes over 8.15m with 23 in 2005. In 2004 there were 34 and 30 in 2003. USA is the best country with 17 athletes in the world top 100, Ukraine, Russia and China are tied for second at six.

Long Jump World Ranking

Long Jump Performance List


Triple Jump
The talk of the season was Christian Olsson. The 26-year-old Olympic champion came back with a blast. Having been away from competition since the 2004 World Athletics Final in September 2004 due to injury, Olsson started back in June 2006 by jumping 17.09m in Sweden and had already progressed to 17.40m in his second final of the season in the European Cup First League in Prague.

After not competing for more than 1,5 years, the Swede came back to record nine wins in ten competitions and was ranked number one in the event. Olsson capped his season with a win on home turf in Gothenburg, his home town, winning the European Championships there with his season’s best 17.67m, only bettered during 2006 by Walter Davis’ (USA) world leading 17.71m from the US Championships. Davis won the World Indoor Championships, but competed very little in Europe during the summer. Following a few low key performances he did come back to win the World Cup in Athens with a good mark of 17.54m. Jadel Gregório (BRA) could not better his personal best this season, but performed consistently. He finished second at the World Indoor Championships and was in top three in all European meetings he took part to including important second place finishes at the World Athletics Final and the World Cup. There were 22 athletes over 17.10m during 2006, 23 in 2005, 25 in 2004 and 15 in 2003. Russia is the top country with 12 athletes in the world top 100, China is close second at 11 and France third with nine.

Triple Jump World Ranking

Triple Jump Performance List

WOMEN - Jumps

High Jump
In the review last year we noted the major fluctuations in the number of jumpers and performances at 2.00 or better in recent years (counting both indoors and outdoors) and that pattern got another remarkable twist in 2006. Just take a look at this fact sheet (Average = The average number of 2.00+ marks per athlete):

Year-Athletes-Marks-Average
1998 – 4 – 7 – 1.75
1999 – 6 – 12 – 2.00
2000 – 7 – 13 – 1.86
2001 – 5 – 16 – 3.20
2002 - 7 – 21 – 3.00
2003 – 15 – 50 – 3.33
2004 – 13 – 38 – 2.92
2005 – 4 – 13 – 3.25
2006 – 6 – 38 – 6.33

The 2006 number of athletes is quite "normal" – the peak in 2003 and 2004 appears more and more as a unique occurrence – but the number of marks is strikingly high. It is the same as in 2004 – but with less than half the number of athletes contributing, which results in the record figures in the "Average" column. That number has previously been very stable around 2-3 and now suddenly it has shot up all the way to 6.33.

Translating those numbers into English the 2m-jumpers of 2006 demonstrated a never seen before consistency at this elevated level of performance. They made 2m jumps the order of the day for themselves. This was very clearly demonstrated at the European Championships where five of the six competed, where four still were jumping with the bar at 2.05 and where for the first time ever in an international championship a 2.01 clearance wasn't sufficient to bring you a medal.

Another illustration: Last summer Kajsa Bergqvist (SWE) reigned supreme winning all her competitions and height-wise her 2006 was even better – but still she only won half of her 18 meets! This because the trio Blanka Vlasic (CRO), Venelina Veneva (BUL) and Tia Hellebaut (BEL) raised their games distinctively: Vlasic age 22 fully fit again after having lost 1995 to injuries and illness, Veneva age 32 competing much better than ever and Hellebaut age 28 changing her priorities from the heptathlon.

The women's High Jump must be the most popular field event among meeting directors: In 2006 it was a featured Golden League event plus it was offered at five of the six Super Grand Prix meets this past summer. As for the Golden League it has been one of the jackpot events in 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006 – and it has just been announced that the same will be true in 2007!

High Jump World Ranking

High Jump Performance List

Pole Vault
Last year in the review it was noted that rapid rise in standards experienced in the late 1990's and early 2000's seemed to have almost come to a standstill although this had gone unnoticed due to the steady flow of World records courtesy of Yelena Isinbayeva. Now in 2006 there weren’t any new records outdoors as Isinbayeva after switching coaches was in the process of making significant changes to her technique.

She still remained the undisputed No 1 of the event although she had to settle for 4.91 – i.e. 10 cm below her World record set in the 2005 World Championships – as her best mark for the year.  But this standstill/regress at the very top was actually accompanied by a resumed forward motion in general standards.

That trend is not very pronounced at deeper levels – e.g. 100th in the World list remains at or around 4.20 – but is quite strong at the "international class" level: From 1999 to 2005 the number of 4.50-vaulters was 4 – 10 – 12 – 14 – 13 – 19 – 14, jumping all the way to 28 this year! It remains to be seen whether this will result in a similar push to the next level in the future because hasn’t happened now: The number of 4.70-vaulters remained within the 3-6 bracket we had seen for the four previous years.

And if anyone aspires to truly challenge Isinbayeva's position as No 1 she needs to raise her game another quarter of a metre or so. Monika Pyrek (POL), Anna Rogowska (POL), and Svetlana Feofanova (RUS) have been the main contenders for No 2 in recent years thanks to their consistency at 4.70/4.80 but that steadiness could also be interpreted as levelling off in the progress.

So we might have to look elsewhere for the next challenger of the 5 meter barrier. Searching for strong upward trends the most interesting names to be found in the current world elite is Jen Stuczynski (USA) and Fabiana Murer (BRA). Both improved by about a quarter of a metre to show consistency at 4.60+ levels this summer. Especially Stuczynski must have a lot of untapped potential as this was her only second year of serious pole vaulting.

Pole Vault World Ranking

Pole Vault Performance List


Long Jump
Standard-wise the Long Jump remained at the levels seen in recent years, levels which are markely lower than those in the late 1990's. Now the 25th and the 50th mark is consistently around 6.70 and 6.60 respectively while we regularly saw numbers between 5 and 10 centimeters higher previously.

Last year there were some signs of a forthcoming revival as the top of the World list was dominated by fairly young athletes with an average age of 23.5 years for the top-6. But rather than progressing this year those youngsters had all but disappeared and the average age for the top-6 increased by over four years to 27.8!

Typical for this year was that the dominating figure - the only athlete demonstrating consistency at the 7-metre level – was a 27-year-old newcomer to the international scene: Russia's Lyudmila Kolchanova. Just two years ago her personal best was a mere 6.54 but after improving about a quarter of a metre in both 2005 and 2006 she now has catapulted herself to the No 1 position in the world. It will be very interesting to see if this "late bloomer" can continue to progress further. She’ll probably need that to stay at the top of her form as USA’s Tianna Madison (World Champion 2005 while still a teenager) and Russia’s Irina Simagina (Olympic silver medallist 2004 at age 22) can be expected to return after missing 2006 more or less completely due to injuries.

Long Jump World Ranking

Long Jump Performance List

Triple Jump
Experience continued to rule in this event with three athletes in their thirties on top of the World list: Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS), Trecia Smith (JAM), and Hrisopiyi Devetzi (GRE). The outstanding individual among those was once more Lebedeva who won all her eight competitions during the summer surpassing 15 metres on all those occasions but two.

This trio had 15m-experience before 2006 but they were also joined in that quite exclusive category by Russia's Anna Pyatykh who after some years in the 14.80's now finally got her well deserved first 15+.

So the major find of 2005 (14.82 and World Championships silver medal in her first ever year as a Triple Jumper) – Cuba's Yargelis Savigne – should not be to worried that she will have to wait another year before joining the 15m-club. Savigne's consistency at 14.70-14.90 this year at age 21 underlined the assertion that the future of this event very well could belong to her.

Otherwise the event seems to in a phase of stagnation and it is really amazing that the USA still has not been able to produce any truly competitive athlete in this event that has been on the international championship programme since the early 1990's and which actually was on the US collegiate programme even earlier. The US National record of 14.46 is over one metre short of the World record and no less than 22 other nations have better NR's (including 12 over 15 metres). And looking at 2006 no major positive change for the US is on the cards: 33-years old Tiombe Hurd at 29th place with 14.15 is their only jumper among the top-50 (over 13.97).

Triple Jump World Ranking

Triple Jump Performance List