Jan Janku over 2.32 to win in Ostrava (© meeting organisers)
Tomás Janku jumped 2.33m to win top honours at the Novinarska Latka High Jump meeting in Prague on Thursday evening (15). It was a notable turnaround for the Czech jumper after his 2.15 performance in Bydgoszcz, Poland, only twenty-four hours earlier.
It was only one centimetre under his personal indoor best of 2.34, which came nine days ago in Brno.
“I was really surprised (with this result) because I was so ineffective yesterday,” said the silver medallist from last year’s European Championships. “There were many reasons for my bad jumps last night - too many people in the hall, too much noise, and a bothersome pain in my takeoff (left) leg. The 2.15 looks worse than it really was because I passed 2.20 to save energy for my jumps at 2.24, which weren’t successful.”
Normally, a trip from Bydgoszcz to just about anywhere is a major undertaking, but Janku was able to get a flight from that city’s small airport to Warsaw, with a quick connection to Prague. “I got up at 4:15am, but I was here at 9am,” he noted.
“I immediately went to the sports club for a massage, and by noon I was at my own home, fast asleep,” he continued. By mid-afternoon he was again awake and preparing for this appearance in a competition organized by his brother Jan, himself a former high jumper himself and now an athletes’ manager.
Back-to-back competitions aren’t new for the 32-year-old. Earlier this month, he jumped 2.30 only one day after his PB performance in Brno. But these are situations he clearly would like to keep to a minimum.
Janku praised the temporary facility which had been erected earlier in the day in the Metropole shopping mall in the Zlicin section of Prague’s western fringe. “It was not hard but it was also not too soft. It was in that middle range that makes for good jumping” was his assessment.
Finishing second was Russian Aleksey Dmitrik, who had one excellent but unsuccessful attempt at 2.31 and ended with a season best of 2.28. Cuba’s Victor Moya was third at 2.25, while Sydney Olympic champion Sergey Klyugin of Russia took fourth at 2.19.
Ed Gordon for the IAAF
RESULTS:
1. T Janku (CZE) 2.33 [2.10 – 2.19 – 2.25/3 – 2.31/2 – 2.33 – 2.35/xxp]; 2. Dmitrik (RUS) 2.28 (2.31/xxx); 3. Moya (CUB) 2.25; 4. Klyugin (RUS) 2.19; 5. Saman (CZE) 2.15; 6. Bába (CZE) 2.15; 7. Benko (SVK) and Giósis (GRE) 2.10; 9. Kabelka (SVK) 2.10; 10. Dillon (CAN) 2.05.
