 |
| Mariya Kuchina of Russia. (Event organisers) |
Russia’s Mariya Kuchina, the 2010 Youth Olympic Games high jump winner, cleared a world junior best and 2011 world-leading mark of 1.97m at Beskydska latka meeting, the first leg of the Moravia High Jump Tour, in the Czech city of Trinec on Wednesday.
“I m surprised, this something new for me, but very special,” said the delighted Kuchina, who went into the competition with personal bests of 1.90m indoors and 1.91m outdoors.
She improved three times on the night, the first occasion being when she went over 1.92m at the second time of asking to win the competition.
Kuchina, who only turned 18 two weeks ago, then flew over 1.94m with her first attempt before clearing 1.97in with her second effort after asking the organisers to shut off the music and the enthusiastic crowd to be quiet so that she could concentrate.
The former indoor world junior best, there are no formal junior records indoors, belonged to Bulgaria’s Desislava Aleksandrova, who jumped 1.96m for the silver medal at the 1994 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris, which coincidently will be the venue for this year’s Championships in six weeks time.
In addition to the possibility of getting a medal at the Palais Omnisport Paris-Bercy - the youngest ever European Athletics Indoor Championships women’s high jump gold medallist was Romania’s Alina Astafai when she was 19 in 1989 although Poland’s Urzula Kielan won the bronze medal as a 17-year-old in 1978 - Kuchina will obviously be the overwhelming favourite for the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, from 21-24 July.
Sweden’s 2010 European Athletics Championships silver medallist Emma Green was second again in Trinec, clearing a modest 1.88m in her debut of the year.
In the men’s competition, Aleksandr Shustov made it a double victory for Russia at the Czech high jump spectacular watched by 2000 people.
The 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist won with 2.29m, and had three close misses at 2.31m, just holding off his young compatriot Sergey Mudrov who also got over 2.29m but had more failures in the competition.