7th June 2012 11:19
The high jumps will be among the highlights of the 13th Primo Nebiolo Memorial meeting in the Italian city of Torino, a European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting, on Friday.
The men's contest features Russia's Ivan Ukhov, who will arrive fresh from his 2012 world-leading jump of 2.37m in Opole, Poland, on Wednesday.
Ukhov has fond memories of Torino, even though it has been three years since he last competed in the city. On the last occasion he was in action there he won at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships, his major senior title.
Up against Ukhov will be a quartet of good local jumpers: Marco Fassinotti, Silvano Chesani, Gianmarco Tamberi and Filippo Campioli.
Germany's Ariane Friedrich, who coincidently also won at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships, showed that she is healthy again when she cleared 1.92m on Monday, her best result since she rupturing her Achilles tendon in training at the end of 2010, and will be one of the stars of the women's contest.
She will face the American record holder and 2012 World Indoor Championships gold medallist Chaunte Lowé and the prodigious Italian teenager Alessia Trost, the top junior I n the world this year after her recent Italian junior record of 1.92m.
Another good event will be the men's 110m hurdles which sees Italian record holder Emanuele Abate up against Russia's in-form Sergey Shubenkov, who set a national record and European time of 13.18 in France last week. France's Garfield Darien, who ran a personal best of 13.24 last Saturday in Geneva is also in the field.
In the 100m, home sprinters Fabio Cerutti and Simone Collio face Great Britain's 2012 World Indoor Championships 60m bronze medallist Dwain Chambers.
Italy's Claudio Liciardello should have a good fight with Czech record holder Pavel Maslak in the 400m while the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships triple jump gold medallist Simona La Mantia will be looking to perform better than her rather modest performance at the Samsung Diamond league meeting in Rome last Friday.
Details of all European Athletics Outdoor Permit Meetings can be found here.