Less than seven weeks before the Olympic athletics events will start in Beijing Yelena Slesarenko has started her season on a high note. The Russian Olympic Champion from Athens took the prestigious Eberstadt Meeting in Germany on Saturday (28) with 2.02m from Ariane Friedrich (Germany/2.00).

For the first time in 29 editions there were two men’s winners in Eberstadt: Victor Moya (Cuba) and Martyn Bernard (Great Britain) both cleared 2.30m.

Slesarenko, who had jumped 2.02m indoors this year, had started her first competition in the summer with clearances of 1.84 and 1.88 before she jumped 1.92 at her second attempt. There were more scares to come for the Russian after clearing 1.9 m at her first attempt. She jumped 1.98 at her second attempt and then needed three jumps to finally clear 2.00m.

Friedrich had almost looked like the winner since she had cleared that height at once and had made no mistake before. When Slesarenko then jumped 2.02 at her second attempt Friedrich saved her final jump for the next height of 2.04 but could not cope with that height. Slesarenko tried 2.04 m twice but then resigned from competition.

There were three sharing third place with 1.95 m behind: Vita Palamar (Ukraine), Ruth Beitia (Spain) and Viktoriya Slivka-Klugina (Russia). They had made no mistake before failing at 1.98 m.

A day later on Sunday (29) the men’s event failed to produce a single winner: Six jumpers had cleared 2.30m and then they all missed the next height. Victor Moya (Cuba) and Martyn Bernard (Great Britain) remained tied in first place after a jump-off, which is reported to have been abandoned early. Michal Bieniek (Poland) took third place, followed by Andrey Silnov (Russia), Stefan Holm (Sweden) and Andrea Bettinelli (Italy).

Lukyanenko and Holzdeppe clear 5.80m in Biberach

The performance of the day at the meeting in Biberach on Saturday (28) came from a junior: Raphael Holzdeppe cleared 5.80m in the Pole Vault for the first time and tied the 19-year-old World Junior record (under 20) of Maksim Tarasov (Russia/1989).

Holzdeppe, who took second in this event behind Russia’s Evgeniy Lukvanenko, jumped 5.80m at his third attempt and then resigned from the competition. Before then he had cleared 5.50 and 5.70 at his second attempts and then 5.75 at his third.

18-year-old Holzdeppe, who had established a world junior best indoors this year with 5.68m, now heads the German season’s list before the decisive Olympic qualification event at next weekend’s national championships in Nürnberg. Eight Germans so far have jumped 5.70m or higher – so the fight for the Beijing tickets should once more be a thrilling one.

Having cleared 5.80m at his first attempt Lukyanenko went for 6.00m, which he missed three times. Björn Otto took third place with 5.70m.

Apart from the Pole Vault, the 100m got a lot of attention in Biberach because of the start of Dwain Chambers. The Briton did not disappoint and improved his season’s best twice during the meeting. In his first race he won the 100 m in 10.14 (+0.7 wind), then he took a second race at this distance with 10.06 (+0.4).

In his familiar style, coming from behind, Yuriy Borzakovskiy took the 800m. Russia’s Olympic champion from Athens clocked 1:44.81 to win from young German Robin Schembera (1:45.66).

While Gregory Sedoc (Netherlands) won the 110m Hurdles in 13.56 sec, Vida Anim (Ghana) won the women’s 100m in 11.22 sec from Laura Turner (Great Britain/11.29) and an improving Ivet Lalova (Bulgaria/11.31).

Tatyana Dektyareva (Russia) dominated the 100m Hurdles (12.84), while Karin Mey (South Africa) took the Long Jump with 6.81m. Anita Wlodarczyk (Poland) beat Germany’s World Hammer Champion Betty Heidler with 72.80m to 71.76.

Blaschek wins in Zeulenroda

Thomas Blaschek won the 110m hurdles in Zeulenroda on Friday evening with 13.58 scs. It was Stephan Steding who produced the best result of the meeting. He won the Javelin Throw with 83.50 m. Michael Möllenbeck took the Discus Throw with 64.11m.

On Saturday (28), Nadine Kleinert won the Shot Put in Gotha with 19.74m from Denise Hinrichs (18.79). Ralf Bartels took the men’s event with 20.01m.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF