Istanbul, Turkey - World High Jump champion Blanka Vlašić was the absolute highlight of the second day of European Cup, First League, Group B competition at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.

2.06m on second attempt

Croatia's top athlete once again improved her world season lead and now it stands at 2.06m. It was the second time in her career that she has achieved this result and her PB is 2.07 from last year. It was a bit of a strange competition because due to strong wind the organisers changed the position of the landing area. The uprights and mat were at the border of the inside lane and many high jumpers, including Vlašić, had to start their run-up at the grass, though Vlašić later told us later that it wasn't a problem for her.

Technique stretched at 2.02

Vlašić win was her 29th consecutive victory (25th in a row with 2 metres or more) clearing 1.98m on the first attempt - Sweden's Emma Green was second with 1.94m - but had a lot of problems with the bar at 2.02m. She cleared it only on her final attempt.

“It was a very difficult competition because of a strong wind,“ confirmed Vlašić. “I didn't realise how fast it was pushing me so sometimes I went too close to the bar. I am very satisfied with the jump at 2.06. Before that I had a problems with my technique. Taking into count all the conditions I take this as a big personal victory.“

After jumping 2.02m she raised the bar to 2.06 and was successful on her second approach. This time she didn't choose to attempt to break the World record of Stefka Kostadinova (2.09), instead she tried to jump over a 2.08m bar for the first time in her career but it ended without success.

“I am still not in my best shape so I was lacking freshness in those attemps.“

Klüft 6.87m

The strong wind was a very influental factor in many events. Sweden's Carolina Klüft made most use of it in a great women's Long Jump competition improving to seventh position in the season's world list with a 6.87m leap with an almost perfect wind of 1.9 m/s. It is only 10cm short of her PB in this event from 2004. She also had a 6.83 jump with no measured wind.

Saturday's winner of the women's Triple Jump competition Hrysopiyí Devetzí of Greece was second with 6.74 (3.9 m/s). Her best legal jump was 6.42 (1.7 m/s). Behing her were Romanian Viorica Tigau (6.51m; 3.2 m/s) and 18-year old Serbian Ivana Španović (6.48m; 3.2 m/s).

One of the strongest winds recorded was in women's 200 metres, +5.5 m/s. Olympic 400m Hurdles champion Fani Halkia from Greece won that race in 23.33, ahead of Romanian Nikolett Listar, 23.44.

In the men's 200m event, Saturday's winner of the 400m Johan Wissman of Sweden claimed a double with a 20.30 (3.2 m/s) clocking. Second was Swiss Marc Schneeberger 20.67, third was Ukraine's Igor Bodrov 20.74.

In the men's 110m Hurdles Sweden's Robert Kronberg won with 13.68 sec with a 'hurricane' on his back of 5.6 m/s. Andreas Kundert had a time of 13.69 and Damjan Zlatnar 13.71.

Turkey's Selim Bayrak also had two victories. On Saturday he was the fastest at the 5000m and today at 3000m he won with 8:01.38.

Last year's European U-23 champion Nevin Yanit from Turkey won the women's 100m Hurdles with 12.73 (2.3 m/s), and the home crowd was also delighted with World Championship 10,000m silver medallist Elvan Abeylegesse who took the victory at the women's 5000m with 15:26.33, five seconds ahead of Serbia's Olivera Jevtić who won the European silver in the Marathon two years ago.

Double European Junior champion Cristina Vasiloiu beat the European bronze medallist in the women's 1500m, Daniela Yordanova. The Romanian clocked 4:15.47 and the Bulgarian 4:15.95. Third was Marina Munčan from Serbia with 4:16.28.  

There was a solid competition for Ukrainian triple jumper Viktor Kuznyetsov. He had 16.93m (+1.0 m/s), 16,90 (+1.5 m/s) and 16,90 (+2.0 m/s), while in the women's Hammer Throw Croatia's Ivana Brkljačić won easily but she couldn't pass the 70m mark. Her best was 69.37m.

The women's 4x400m Relay went to Greece with 3:33.07 and the men's to a Ukrainian quartet with 3:06.72. 

Overall, Sweden won the men's competition with 117 points. Ukraine was second with 106.5 and Slovenia third with 96. Greece was the best in the women's competition with 122 points ahead of Romania (117.5) and Bulgaria (90.5). The introduction of the new European Team Championships in 2009 means that there is no classical team promotion and relegation.

Hrvoje Slišković - Jutarnji list - for IAAF

Click here for FULL RESULTS