European Athletics (EAA) – News – High jumper Chicherova returns in style, Klyuka clocks fastest European 800m in 2011

Russian high jumper Anna Chicherova made an impressive return to competition by clearing a world-leading 1.96m during the second day of Russian Team Championships in Sochi on Wednesday.

It was her first meeting for the Olympic Games and world championships high jump medallist in almost two years, her last competition being the World Athletics Final in September 2009, when she finished second.

She missed the whole of 2010 after becoming pregnant and she gave birth to her daughter Nika last September.

A link to an interview conducted with Chicherova last month about her return can be found here.

https://www.european-athletics.org/general-news/russias-chicherova-jumping-back-into-the-spotlight.html

Chicherova went over her winning height at her second attempt after being flawless up to that point. Second was Irina Gordeyeva with 1.94m while the 2010 Youth Olympic Games gold medallist Mariya Kuchina was third with an outdoor best of 1.92m, although she cleared a world junior indoor best of 1.97m during the winter.

The 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Aleksandr Shustov cleared 2.30m to win the men’s event and comfortably beat his predecessor as the continental champion, the 2008 Olympic Games winner Andrey Silnov, who could only go over 2.24m.

The horizontal jumps events produced great marks in many disciplines thanks to some helpful wind conditions.

Triple jumper Anna Kuropatkina set a personal best of 14.35m to win the women’s contest while Aleksey Fedorov went out to 17.01m to become the second European to go beyond the 17-metre barrier outdoors this summer.

Sergey Polyanskiy leaped to 8.00m in long jump while the former world and European indoor pole vault champion Igor Pavlov cleared a season’s best of 5.64m

Svetlana Klyuka became the fastest European over two laps of the track when she won in 1:59.26 with Yelena Kostetskaya second in 2:00.39.

Yulia Chermoshanskaya posted the second fastest 200m in European this year when she sped to 22.81.

Aleksandr Lobynya improved for a second time in two week when he launched the shot out to a new best of 21.00m, to become the second best European performer of the year. Ivan Yushkov was second in Sochi with 20.38m while Ana Omarova had her best result for three years when she went out to 19.05m to win the women’s competition.

European Athletics (EAA) – News