David Oliver in Gothenburg (© Hasse Sjögren)
Gothenburg, SwedenWith all other events concluded US hurdler David Oliver provided the perfect ending to the 7th edition of the SamsungGalan in the Scandinavium Arena in Göteborg: In a typical "Oliver-race" he was trailing in the early stages but once he got into full-speed running Oliver stormed through the field winning in 7.56 – a new World best time for this winter.
But although Oliver produced the top performance of the evening he was not the most impressive athlete. That characterisation belonged to German High Jumper Ariane Friedrich who entered the competition at 1.90m and who had the competition won after 1.93m (Melanie Skotnik of France finishing second with 1.90m).
Friedrich close to 2.01m
Then Friedrich decided to go straight to 2.01m, i.e. one centimetre above her best mark this year. In Friedrich's second attempt just about everyone in the arena thought for a few seconds she had indeed succeeded, but then the bar finally decided to fall.
The two events that got most of the attention from the 4801 spectators were the men's High Jump and Pole Vault as both had Swedish athletes forging tight battles with Russian Olympic medallists.
Rybakov over Thörnblad
In the High Jump Yaroslav Rybakov may have lost one tough Swedish opponent when Stefan Holm retired after last summer but the Russian still has to contend with Linus Thörnblad. Both came into the meet with 2.30m bests this winter. Rybakov now got the advantage at 2.25m when Thörnblad missed once, but then the four years younger Swede turned it around at 2.28m where he cleared in his first attempt while the Russian failed once.
Thörnblad kept the advantage almost to the end of the competition. Both his first and third attempt at 2.31m were very close to succeed while Rybakov looked a little sluggish. But for his last attempt the Russian summoned all his experience and went clear thereby reclaiming the first place.
It will be interesting to see if the Rybakov-Thörnblad rivalry will go on to match the Rybakov-Holm one in intensity and longevity. At least this day no one else was capable of really getting involved in the fight for the first place. Aleksandr Shustov finished third at 2.25m and Andra Manson of the US fourth at 2.21m.
Lukyanenko takes the vault, Jeng hospitalised
In the Pole Vault local favourite Alhaji Jeng and World Indoor Champion Yevgeniy Lukyanenko were clearly the top athletes this evening. While veteran Tim Lobinger of Germany missed his opening height of 5.35m and while Viktor Chistiakov and Leonid Andreyev were eliminated at 5.55m, both Jeng and Lukyanenko impressed.
Both entered at 5.35m, both made 5.55m with huge margins in their second attempts and both then went straight for 5.75m. None of their total six attempts were really close but on the other hand their vaults clearly showed that with only minor adjustments the height was manageable.
With identical records in the competition it went to a jump-off for the win. That process, however, was stopped after 5.70m as Jeng, in a freak accident during his attempt, was hit in the face close to right eye by the end of the bar and had to abandon the competition to seek medical treatment.
Sokolova defeats strong field in Long Jump
The women's Long Jump was originally planned to feature Carolina Klüft, but a minor stress fracture in her take-off leg has forced her to forego the Long Jump this winter and only compete in a few 60m races. This evening she ran 7.61 in the 60m heats which was not sufficient to advance to the final. A final was led most of the way by young Norwegian Ezinne Okparaebo who, however, was caught at the tape by Ghana's Vida Anim (7.31 vs 7.33).
The Klüft-less Long Jump still featured several established top class jumpers – Cuban Yargelis Savigne, Russian Lyudmila Kolchanova, Americans Brittney Reese and Grace Upshaw, and Jade Johnson of Great Britain – and it ended up with a winning distance just two centimetres off of the world leading mark. But that 6.65m jump did not belong to any of those top names but rather to unheralded Russian Yelena Sokolova.
Savigne had the best series but still ended up second with 6.56m with Reese third with a 6.45m leap. The American impressed by coming back strongly after being very close to a major accident on her second attempt. Leaving the board completely off balance she had a very awkward landing and tumbled out of the pit and onto the floor appearing to hurt her back and head. But she still completed all six jumps getting her best mark in the last round!
A special Triathlon consisting of the 60m Hurdles, Shot Put and Long Jump turned into an intense duel between Germany's Nils Winter and Sweden's Nicklas Wiberg. Winter won the hurdles by 0.03 seconds (seven points), Wiberg won the Shot Put by 42 centimetres (25 points) and with just one jump to go – Winter's last – Wiberg was leading the event by one centimetre.
But Winter – who actually has the world leading mark in the Long Jump this season – managed to take advantage of that quality and with a final 7.46m jump and won the event by 32 points and the whole competition by 14 points.
A. Lennart Julin for the IAAF
