Vlasic and Holm aiming ever higher

Croatia's jumping giant, Blanka Vlasic, won the Banska Bystrica High Jump meeting with a 2.04m clearance – her second World-leading performance in the last four days.

The European Athlete of the Year 2007 has now surpassed the two-metre benchmark in all three of her indoor competitions this season. At the pre-event press conference the 23-year-old Croatian admitted,

"My best jumps seem always to come after 2.00m. I don't know why. Perhaps I don't really get motivated until then."

The Stiavnicky Sport Hall floor in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia has been a favourite of Vlasic's ever since her first appearance there two years ago. On that memorable evening, she jumped a personal best of 2.05m to move into fourth place in the World all-time list, before ending the evening with a tantalisingly close attempt at a would-be World record height of 2.09m. The capacity crowd at the Stiavnicky Sport Hall reacted with delight when the World Champion Long Jumper addressed them from the podium,

"I'm happy with the result tonight, I jumped only three days ago [in Arnstadt], and my legs feel really empty, but I'll keep coming back here again and again until I get that World record I promised you I would two years ago!"
holm_stephan_1.jpg
Olympic High Jump Champion, Stefan Holm wins his fourth Banska
Bystrica title.

Yekaterina Savchenko of Russia finished second with a season best of 1.97m, while Kazakh jumper Marina Aitova, also improved her 2008 mark to 1.94m to finish in third. Fourth place went to Iva Strakova of the Czech Republic, who also cleared 1.94m, while four jumpers tied for fifth with 1.90m.

The star attraction in the men's event, Olympic High Jump Champion Stefan Holm, won his fourth Banska Bystrica High Jump title with just four jumps, however his final 2.34m clearance did not happen easily. American Jesse Williams, who had been erratic for most of the evening, cleared a personal best of 2.32m on his first attempt, Holm missed at the same height, forcing the Swede to win at the next height. An experienced Championship performer, Holm is used to pressured situations and he cleared 2.34m on his opening attempt to settle the contest, with Williams unable to extend his best.

This was Holm's 117th career competition at 2.30m or higher, putting him only one behind the 118 amassed by fellow Swede, Patrik Sjöberg to be Sweden's most dominant High Jumper.

Holm finished the evening with three unsuccessful attempts at a World-leading 2.38m. It was a worthwhile stop on the athletics circuit for the group of thirteen male jumpers, with eight either equaling or exceeding their season best. Finishing in third was a relative newcomer to the international High Jumping scene, Ukrainian Dmytro Demyanyuk, who equaled his indoor best with 2.30m, and Helsinki medallist Victor Moya of Cuba was fourth at the same height.

Source/Courtesy
European Athletics (EAA)
https://www.european-athletics.org/
<a href="https://www.european-athletics.org">EAA</a>