Russia's 2009 European Athletics Junior Championships high jump gold medallist Sergey Mudrov will be looking to add to his list of honours at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, this summer.
“Sergey’s targets his year will be the European Athletics U23 Championships and the World University Games (rather than the World Championships),” commented his coach and 2000 Olympic Games high jump gold medallist Sergey Klyugin on the Russian athletics federation website www.rusathletics.org.
“It’s an early stage on his climb into the adult world. He competed in Paris at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, and he did well to get there, but everything should be gradual. He’ll benefit in the end from what he does in the age category,” added Klyugin.
Russia has such a wealth of high jumping talent – including the current world number one and 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships gold medallist Ivan Ukhov, the 2010 European Athletics Championships gold medallist Aleksandr Shustov, the 2009 World Championships gold medallist Yaroslav Rybakov and the 2008 Olympic Games champion Andriy Silnow, as well as the very consistent Aleksey Dmitrik - that Klyugin has recognised it would be unrealistic to place huge expectations on Mudrov’s young shoulders and expect him to be on the plane to this summer’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.
Mudrov, still only 20, had a spectacular indoor season and equalled his personal best of 2.30m on three occasions but ran out of steam by the time he got to the French capital and failed to make the final.
However, no European high jumper younger than Mudrov went higher than him this winter.
“After he won the Russian title in February, the local media were too quick to hang a medal around his neck and I think this got to Sergey by the time he got to Paris. At the moment, he’s not psychologically tough enough but overall I was very pleased with his indoor season.
“Going over 2.30m as many times as he did and winning at the Russian Championships showed that he has made his first serious steps forward to success in the senior ranks,” commented Klyugin.
Mudrov has a best outdoors of 2.27m, which he will be looking to improve upon considerably this coming summer.
At the European Athletics Indoor Championships, he got a good look at the man who might be his main rival for the gold medal in Ostrava, Italy’s Marco Fassinotti.
Fassinotti, 21 and sixth at the 2009 European Athletics U23 Championships, which were won by Poland’s Sylwester Bednarek with a clearance of 2.28m, succeeded where Mudrov failed and made the final, in which he then cleared an absolute personal best of 2.29m for sixth place.
The 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships will be held in Ostrava from 14-17 July.