Irina Gordeyeva unexpectedly crowned the 7th Jumpers’ Meeting in Cottbus on Wednesday evening (28) with a meeting record and the first two metre jump in the history of the event.

The 22-year-old Russian took the High Jump with 2.01m, improving her personal best by three centimetres. The men’s Pole Vault produced a major surprise as well, though not quite such a high-class result: Britain’s Steven Lewis snatched the win with a 5.65m jump, beating German stars Danny Ecker and Björn Otto.

Germany’s double Olympic High Jump Ulrike Nasse-Meyfarth (1972 and 1984) was a guest of honour at the Lausitz Indoor Arena in Cottbus, which had a capacity crowd of 2000 spectators.

There was not much indicating a spectacular result in the women’s High Jump. Five jumpers were still in contention at 1.92m, but only two of them managed to clear that height. As well as Irina Gordeyeva it was Germany’s Maike Kröger, who established a personal best, when clearing 1.92 m at her final attempt. The 22-year-old from Berlin has now also reached the qualifying mark for the European Indoors.

“It was my aim to reach 1.92 metres during the season, but it was not the target for today. I am very happy to have jumped it. It was the first time I jumped here in Cottbus,” said Kröger, who then missed 1.94 m three times, but took second place.

Ireland’s Deirdre Ryan and Germany’s Julia Hartmann shared third place with 1.88m while Nicole Forrester was fifth with the same height. The Canadian had jumped with a slight handicap after twisting an ankle when trying to clear 1.84m. She had to see the physio during competition.

Gordeyeva had cleared 1.80, 1.84, 1.88, 1.92 and 1.94 each at her first attempt. She then went for 1.96, which she achieved at her third attempt. Instead of going straight for the 2.00m she went for 1.99. Four days earlier she had been second behind Ariane Friedrich (Germany/2.00 m) in Hustopece with a personal best of 1.98m.

In Cottbus she cleared 1.99m at her third attempt and then jumped 2.01m at her first. But 2.03m were too high for Gordeyeva, who had improved Viktoriya Styopina’s (Ukraine) meeting record from 2006 by four centimetres.

“Jumping 2.01 was a surprise to me,” the Russian said. “But I think I can jump higher in the future. I would like to participate in the European Championships, but first I will have to qualify at the Russian Championships.”

Ecker scare

In a vote by the spectators the reigning European Indoor Champion Danny Ecker turned out to be the favourite for victory in the men’s Pole Vault. But there was a scare for Ecker and his fans. Using new carbon poles for the first time he needed to adjust to the lighter weight. At his first attempt at 5.40m Ecker ran through, at the second he jumped, but missed. To the relief of the spectators he then crossed the bar in style.

“I was really nervous for some days, because when you are using new poles you do it with some respect,” explained Ecker. “The new poles are too hard to test them in training, so I really had not made a single jump with them before.”

Ecker then cleared 5.60m at his first attempt, but failed at 5.70m. His second attempt looked very good though.

“I am satisfied with my performance today, though I would have like to have jumped the qualifying standard for Torino of 5.70 metres already today,” said Ecker, who had won the continental indoor title two years ago in Birmingham.

Otto back from injury

While Ecker was third in Cottbus on Wednesday in front of Alexander Straub (Germany/5.60m), Björn Otto took second place. It was a fine comeback after Otto had ruptured his Achilles tendon last summer. The European Indoor silver medallist from Birmingham, who had not had a good year before his injury in 2008, cleared 5.40 and 5.60m each at his first attempt, but then he missed 5.70m.

“The run-up here is a bit too short, which makes it difficult. Two more metres would really help me a lot,” said Otto, who hopes to be as strong as two years ago this season and during the summer.

Lewis carries the day

But the surprise package came from Britain. Steven Lewis was the first British winner in the meeting’s history. The 22-year-old had started his competition by clearing 5.30m at his first attempt. He then went over 5.50m at his second jumped and was the only one to go for 5.65m, after he had passed 5.60m. When he cleared that he was already in the lead and again passed 5.70m, where all his German rivals failed.

“I did not expect to win here, but I wanted to be competitive,” said Lewis. Asked if he may be miscalculated because he was the only jumper to tackle 5.65 m he said: “Risks pay off. I did not want to go for 5.75 metres again, since I had already jumped this. Instead I wanted to go for 5.80.”

His third attempt at that height was indeed very promising and showed that he should be capable of jumping this soon.

“I used a new, bigger pole for 5.80 metres. It is the biggest one I have used this year,” said Lewis, who will next jump in Glasgow at the weekend.

During the indoor season it is his aim to break the British record of 5.81m. “My big long-term goal is the London Olympics.”

Ecker was not too surprised about Steven Lewis. “He had jumped well before. He jumps smoothly and has the necessary feeling for it. He will be one you have to watch in the future,” Ecker said.

It was not the day of Denys Yurchenko in Cottbus. The Ukrainian cleared 5.20m at his first attempt, but then missed the next height of 5.30m three times. He was ninth. Igor Pavlov (Russia) finished just one place ahead of him with 5.30m.

Jörg Wenig for the IAAF