GERMAN MEETINGS – DUESSELDORF – German duo aim for pole position – European Athletics (EAA) – News

A full house in Dusseldorf on Friday night will be treated to a pole vault duel which could have the Arena Sportpark rocking during the European Athletics Indoor Permit meeting.

In London last summer, as Frenchman Renauld Lavillenie won gold in the event, silver and bronze was the property of Germany with Björn Otto finishing second and Raphael Holzdeppe in third.

Otto and Holzdeppe come face to face again at this PSD Bank Dusseldorf meeting so close to next month's European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg where they will both be among the favourites for gold.

How they differ?

Otto is 35 while Holzdeppe is 12 years younger, yet 2012 showed age means nothing.

Firstly at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Otto won silver and Holzdeppe took bronze and it was the same story two months later at the Olympic Games.

Infact, it was exactly the same top three from Helsinki to London.

In Finland, Lavillenie won with 5.97m followed by Otto's personal best of 5.92m and Holzdeppe with 5.77m.

The French star matched his distance to take Olympic gold as Otto and Holzdeppe both finished with 5.91m.

Silver went to Otto on countback but it was close.

The pair remain two of Germany's leading competitors and they will top the bill for a European Permit event that has more than a dozen Olympic and over 30 World Championships medallists.

Two Olympic gold medallists from Athens in 2004 competing are Russians Tatyana Lebedeva and Yuriy Borzakovskiy who will be looking to make an impression so close to Göteborg in front of the 2,000 crowd.

Lebedeva, who also won the long jump at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, is in the triple jump, the event which has brought the two European titles of her career.

She triumphed indoors in Gent in 2000 and then, outdoors, in Göteborg in 2006.
At 36, it would be one of the performances of the Championships if she made it to the podium next month and on Friday she faces Ukraine's Olympic bronze medallist Olha Saladuha.

Borzakovskiy, 31, is one of Europe's most consistent athletes. His first senior title was at those European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gent 13 years ago and then last summer, he powered home to win the 800m title at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki.

France's Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad, who won silver in the 3000m steeplechase in London, will run in the 3000m, while Russian Yekaterina Poistogova, the Olympic 800m bronze medallist, competes at that distance.

European Athletics (EAA) – News