Stefan Holm jumping to World Indoor gold in 2001 (© Getty Images)
In an electric atmosphere at the ‘10th International High Jump meeting to music’, reigning World Indoor champion Sweden’s Stefan Holm, the current world number one, produced an excellent series of results yesterday (25 Feb).
The competition took place in a packed hall of 1000 spectators, and attracted a total of 18 jumpers from 11 countries.
Going over all heights up to and including 2.32m at his first attempt, Holm needed a second jump to achieve his winning 2.34m performance. He then unsuccessfully tried for 2.37 which would have been a new personal best and a meeting record (2.36 Sorin Matei of Romania in 1995), coming close on his second attempt.
"Yes, that was a real pity, I thought I was over. It was a great competition with a fantastic crowd. I want to come back again in future. It was my first visit to Slovakia" said a delighted Holm.
“My main aim is to defend my title in Birmingham, and I see a group of 5-6 jumpers who will fight for the medals. I still have two competitions, first the Swedish national championships on Sunday with the usual battle with Staffan Strand, and then the meet in Tallin.”
Belarussian Moroz produced a very nice attempt over 2.30 and it looked like he would be jumping over 2.35 during the evening. But eventually it was the 18-years-old Jaroslav Baba who had far closer attempts at 2.32. Holm made it clear after the meet that he saw Baba as a potential future World record breaker.
Another hero of the evening was Tomas Janku, he had some injury problems at the beginning of the season but these are now forgotten. He was the only one of the competitors who asked for quiet during his jump (no music, no clapping) and he jumped 2.30 cleanly. The team place for Birmingham is safe and the Czechs will have both him and Baba there.
Janku later passed 2.32 (which is his outdoor PR) and went for 2.34, producing two close attempts. "I needed the quiet atmosphere because then I was able to hear my steps while running and so did not make any mistakes in the run-up," he explained.
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
Selected results -
1. Stefan Holm, SWE 2.34 (2nd best mark in the meeting history)
(2.20/1, 2.25/1, 2.28/1, 2.30/1, 2.32/1, 2.34/2, 2.37/xxx),
2. Gennadiy Moroz, BLR and Jaroslav Baba,CZE both 230
(Moroz: 2.20/1, 2.25/2, 2.28/1, 2.30/1, 2.32/xxx; Baba: 2.15/1, 2.20/1, 2.25/1, 2.28/2, 2.30/1, 2.32/xxx),
4. Tomas Janku, CZE 2.30 - achieved qualifing standard for Birmingham (2.10/1, 2.15/2, 2.20/1, 2.25/1, 2.28/2, 2.30/1, 2.32/p, 2.34/xxx),
5. Stefan Vasilache, ROM 2.28 indoor PR equalled (2.10/1, 2.15/1, 2.20/1, 2.25/2, 2.28/1, 2.30/xxx),
6. Grzegorz Sposob, POL and Aleksey Lesnichiy, BLR both 2.25
(Sposob: 2.15/1, 2.20/1, 2.25/1, 2.28/xxx, Lesnichiy: 2.20/1, 2.25/1, 2.28/p, 2.30/xxx),
8. Dragutin Topic, Serbia and MN, 2.25 - first competition after doping ban (2.15/1, 2.20/1, 2.25/2, 2.28/xpp, 2.30/xx),
9. Oskari Frosen, FIN 2.25 (2.15/1, 2.20/1, 2.25/2, 2.28/xxx),
10. Nicola Ciotti, ITA and Jan Janku, CZE 2.20,
12. Peter Horak, SVK and Giulio Ciotti, ITA 2.20,
14. Aleksander Walerianczyk, POL 2.20,
15. Sergey Dymchenko, UKR 2.20.
