Yuriy Krymarenko of Ukraine wins the men's High Jump (© Getty Images)
Ukraine’s Yuriy Krymarenko, the 2005 World champion, is the headline attraction for the third Moravia Daylong Tour, a series of three indoor High Jump meetings in Czech Republic which start next week.
After two successful editions this year’s tour begins in Hustopece on 20 January and will continue in Ostrava on 23 January, and will finish in Trinec on 25 January.
The current strength and popularity of Czech jumpers gives the tour enough interest and exposure, so that a 40 minutes summary will broadcast by Czech Television.
The top home names on show will be Tomas Janku, the European silver medallist and World Cup winner, Svatoslav Ton, who was an Olympic Games finalist and 6th in the Europeans, and Jaroslav Baba, the Olympic Games bronze medallist who is returning to competition after surgery.
Every meet will have special names who will compete only once during the tour.
In Hustopece, Bulgaria’s European silver medallist Venelina Veneva will compete with Croatia’s World Indoor silver medallist Blanka Vlasic. The meet record in Hustopece is 1.95m and the organisers are hoping that it will be broken considering that Vlasic, has an indoor best of 2.05m. She will arrive directly from her training camp in Spala, Poland.
In Ostrava which is the hometown for Baba, Ukraine’s 2005 World champion Yuriy Krymarenko will compete. He competed in this tour back in 2005 which was his first international outing and improved his then best to 2.27m in Ostrava. After last year which was one of injuries he is supposed to be healthy and ready for big jumps. Here the aim is to break 2.30m for the first time. The meet record is 2.29m.
In Trinec, the women’s line-up will include current European Indoor champion Anna Chicherova from Russia with the goal to break the meet record of 1.94m. That should be a big possibility as Chicherova has already started the season in Yekaterinburg with 1.96m.
There is also a large group of jumpers who will do more than one meet in the series too.
On the men’s side, there is World Indoor silver medallist Andrey Tereshin from Russia, another talented Russian Alexey Dmitrik (recently 2.24m in St. Petersburg), from Ukraine last year’s silver medallist from World Juniors Bohdan Bondarenko (only 17, with a best of 2.26m), experienced jumpers like Kwaku Boateng from Canada or Ben Challenger from Britain are also in the field, while Italian school will be represented by European finalist Andrea Bettinelli. A surprise could come from the best Slovak jumper Peter Horak who recently bettered his indoor best to 2.26m.
On the women’s side local athletes Barbora Lalakova (indoor record holder with 199) and Romana Dubnova are the ones to watch. World champs 2005 medallist from Sweden Emma Green is in the field for leg two and three and so is Canadian jumper Nicole Forrester. Also in the start list is 2000 Olympic Games bronze medallist Oana Pantelimon from Romania, and recent Asian Games winner Marina Aitova form Kazakhstan. Russian meet record holder in Trinec and Hustopece Olga Kaliturina will also attend, while the best Polish jumper Anna Ksok (best of 1.94) is also included.
The overall winner will be established after counting together all results from the event, that means the winner will come only from those athletes who will compete at all three meetings.
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
Basic stats:
Jan 20, Hustopece (near Brno), 8th annual of the meet
MR: 235 Jaroslav Baba, 2005 – 195 Olga Kaliturina,RUS 2005
Live results: www.skakani.cz
Stars: Veneva, Vlasic – Baba, Janku, Ton, Tereshin
Jan 23, Ostrava, 3rd annual of the meet
MR: 229 Svatoslav Ton, 2005 – 194 Iva Strakova, 2005
Live results: http://atletika.ssk-vitkovice.cz
Stars: Krymarenko - Green – Baba, Janku, Ton, Tereshin
Jan 25, Trinec (near Ostrava), 15th annual of the meet
MR: 232 Jaroslav Baba, 2004 . 194 Olga Kaliturina, 2005
Live results: www.beskydskalatka.com
Stars: Chicherova – Baba, Janku, Ton - Green
Tour winners
2005: Jaroslav Baba (women were not officially part of the tour)
2006: Svatoslav Ton and Iva Strakova
2005: 35 jumpers from 11 countries competed (19 men and 16 women)
2006: 37 jumpers from 13 countries competed (22 men and 15 women)
