Ariane Friedrich after her 1.99 PB in Hustopece (© Vaclav Salek)
The 5th annual Moravia High Jump Tour will take place in January 2009 in two Czech cities, Trinec (21 Jan) and Hustopece on (24 Jan) with nearly the same field of competitors at both meetings, who will use the same format of jumping to music.
Both last overall Tour winners from 2008 are returning. Sweden’s Linus Thornblad, the 2007 European Indoor silver medallist, will compete only in the first leg in Trinec due to his commitments at home, but female winner Barbora Lalakova, who is also the Czech indoor record holder with 1.99m, has confirmed her attendance at both meetings.
Lalakova is returning after a major Achilles injury in April 2008 and subsequent surgery which necessitated a long rehabilitation time which forced her to pass the entire summer season.
"I’m back, doing full training,” said Lalakova. “I will start to jump next week during the training camp in Lanzarote.”
The other star in Trinec will be Russian Olympic and World medallist Anna Chicherova, who could become the first woman in the Tour to successfully attack the two metres mark.
The organisers of second and final leg of the Tour in Hustopece are also hoping that 2m will be a mark breached by Ariane Friedrich. The German last season jumped 1.99 at this meet, and since then has cleared two metres or more eleven times in competition.
Another special guest in Hustopece will be Ukraine’s Olympic Heptathlon winner Natalya Dobrynska who will attack her PB of 1.86m.
Tomas Janku, the 2006 European medallist, Olympic finalist Svatoslav Ton, World finalist Iva Strakova and talented Jaroslav Baba, who was also a finalist in Beijing and an Olympic medallist from Athens, are the principal Czech names who will compete in both legs of the Tour. The only local star missing is Romana Dubnova who had a severe leg injury in Beijing and is still having rehabilitation after surgery.
Those from abroad who are signed for both legs include Ukrainian Andriy Protsenko (2.30m, 2007 European junior medallist), US Olympic trials fourth placer Cedric Norman, the best Slovak jumper Peter Horak, and Russian World Indoor medallist Andrey Tereshin.
In the women’s division there will be Ukraine’s 2004 Olympic medallist Viktoriya Styopina, Russian junior champion from last year Yekaterin Bolshakova and Poland’s number one Kamila Stepaniuk, who will do both meets.
In four years, the series has witnessed 14 marks of 2.30m or more, and on the women’s side 20 marks of 1.92m or more. The meet records are in Trinec 2.32m (Jaroslav Baba, 2004) and 1.97m (Barbora Lalakova, 2008) and in Hustopece, 2.36m (Ivan Ukhov, 2008) and 1.99m (Vita Palamar with Ariane Friedrich, 2008).
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
