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| Germany's Ariane Friedrich will be among the top contenders for a high jump medal at the European Athletics Championships in Helsinki. |
German high jumper Ariane Friedrich will go to this year's European Athletics Championships with rather different objectives from two years ago.
Ahead of departing for Barcelona in 2010, Friedrich was one of the main candidates for a medal after having won at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships and getting a World Championships bronze medal later that summer.
In the end, she finished third in Barcelona two years ago and put on a brave face while getting the bronze medal, clearly wishing that she was higher up the podium.
However, this time around she would be delighted with such a result.
Friedrich rupturing her Achilles tendon in training at the end of 2010 and missed all of last year, including the European Athletics Indoor Championships and getting a World Championships, as she recovered.
It has also been a slow road back although the 28-year-old jumper recently cleared 1.92m, her best result for 18 months.
She also won in wet conditions at the German Championships in Wattenscheid last Saturday with 1.86m, 20 centimetres below her best, but the dismal conditions put paid to her going higher.
'While I was warming up, I could still clear 1.90m, which is a good sign. I was determined to achieve the Olympic qualifying mark (of 1.95m), I've cleared this height 60 or 70 times in my career.' Later, she admits, she broke into tears with anger, disappointment, and frustration.
'I was firmly convinced that I could go over the Olympic qualifying standard but the rain and the cold killed me. They were the worse conditions I have seen for a long time.
'So I'm going to the European Championships with a good feeling, I have the Olympic qualifying mark in my legs, I can feel it,' she added.
If she does clear 1.95m then Friedrich could come away with a surprise medal, in contrast to the more predictable one two years ago, as no one going to Helsinki has done better than that height this year.
Croatia's defending champion Blanka Vlašić, whose victory in Barcelona also contributed to her being voted the 2010 European Athlete of the Year, is unable to defend her title due to injury problems.