Tomas Janku in Gothenburg (© Getty Images)
Competing in lessthanconducive conditions, Tomas Janku and Kajsa Bergqvist claimed the wins at the two-day High Jump Meeting in Eberstadt, Germany, over the weekend.
Janku, from the Czech Republic, was the winner in Friday's (18) men's competition at 2.30m, ahead of American Tora Harris, who reached the same hight. Third was the World Indoor Champion, Russia's Jaroslaw Rybakow, who jumped 2.27. Bergqvist, this year's world leader at 2.06, won the women's event on Saturday (19), clearing 1.98.
Janku defeats the chill
Despite the modest 2.30 result, the 31-year-old from Prague wasn't particularly disappointed.
"I am very proud of this victory because for us high jumpers Eberstadt still is the Mecca, and it is not easy to win. And now I wrote history," Janku said. "We are all exhausted from the last week (European Championships). Sometimes this is very hard, but on the other hand we are all professionals and it is our job to jump."
Olympic Champion Stefan Holm could manage just a 2.24 clearance to finish sixth.
"I am very disapointed by this result," said the Swede, who equalled his 2.34 season's best to win bronze in Gothenburg. "I wanted to show what I could do, but it was not possible today, even though I felt quite good. I was only mentally a little tired." Disappointed, Holm was hoping to use the popular event, hosted by this small wine-producing village of 3200, to show that he still remains a force in the event.
One of the newcomers this season, Swede Linus Thörnblad, managed just 2.20 for 11th and admitted that had difficulty with motivation.
"I feel out of order," said Thornblad, who was fourth at the European Championships with a career best 2.34. "I was injured a long time during the season, and I pushed myself for the European Championships and I focussed on it. Now it's finished and I felt empty and without motivation.
It was the first time in 28 years that the men had to jump on Friday, the change coming due to the Super Grand Prix in Monaco being scheduled for Sunday. The main problem was the early evening 18:30 start, which was delayed, bringing on chilly conditions and quickly darkening skies when the competition finally got underway.
1.98 enough for Bergqvist
Bergqvist secured the win with a 1.98 clearance, but missed at 2.01, ending her seasonal streak of two metre jumps at five.
"I am glad to win today, but of course I wanted to jump much higher," said Bergqvist, a native of Sollentuna, who lives in Monaco. She was hoping to avenge her loss to European Champion Tia Hellebaut, but the Belgian former heptathlete was ill and didn't compete. Hellebaut competed in Zürich's Weltklasse on Friday with a fever, thus skipped the Eberstadt meeting.
Bergqvist's coach, Yannick Tregaro, was'nt satisfied with his charge's result.
"She pushed herself too much under pressure," he said, "she wanted too much."
Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko of Russia was second with a 1.95 leap.
"1.95 was okay for me, but I had a very bad situation on the third attempt, where I didn`t jump and I don`t know why," the 24-year-old from Volgograd said.
Third place went to the young Czech, Romana Dubnova, who cleared 1.92, the same height that four others managed - Czech Barbora Lalakova, Spain's Ruth Beitia from Spain, Tatyana Kivimyagi of Russian, and Ukraine's Irina Mykhaltchenko. The Ukrainian was victorious three times in Eberstadt, and indicated that she plans to retire after this season. For the 34-year-old jumper, who competed with muscle problems in her thigh, it was a nice farewell.
Ursula Kaiser for IAAF
