27th May 2013 00:39
In the days leading up to the Diamond League in New York, Blanka Vlasic, Croatia’s brilliant high jumper, had talked of what she hoped to achieve.
She had not compete for almost two years, she had suffered the mental agony of missing last summer’s European Athletics Championships and Olympic Games, and deep down, despite it all, did she know how her body would react once she was thrust back into the heat of action?
Can you imagine how she must have felt when she walked out for this third IAAF Diamond League meeting of the season to see the wind blowing and the rain falling?
Why not choose the opening one in Doha? Or Shanghai for that matter.
No question the weather would have been better and the feel of the night more suited to a body that has been battered enough.
But no. It is all about knowing when the comeback is right and it is why Vlasic, the double world champion, is being talked about once more with such plaudits.
She did not just ‘comeback’ on Saturday afternoon.
She returned with a performance that shows it might not be long before she is the best in the world again.
Read more…
THE WEEK JUST GONE
One of the busiest of the season, with competitions stretching from the streets of Manchester to the mountains of Austria and then to the metropolis that is New York. But it was in the first of those that French star Christophe Lemaitre showed the form he could be in this year as he produced a fine run to win the 150m. Looking good for him with the summer ahead.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Diamond League remains in the USA as it travels across the country to Eugene in Oregon. The men’s pole vault will be one of the feature events as it has the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, the Olympic, World and European champion, in his biggest competition of the summer. The field is outstanding including Greece’s Konstatinos Filippidis who won the event at the opening Diamond League in Doha.
EUROPEAN LEADERS – High Jump
Men
1. Bohan Bondarenko (UKR) 2.33, Doha
2. Aleksandr Shustov (RUS) 2.31, Beijing
3. Tom Parsons (GBR) 2.28, Loughborough
Women
1. Anna Chicherova (RUS) 2.02, Beijing
2. Ruth Beitia (ESP) 1.95m, De Moines, IA
3. Ana Simic (CRO) 1.95m, Beijing
BIRTHDAYS
27.05.12 – Irina Davydova (RUS) – the European 400m hurdles champion turns 25.
27.05.13 – Laura Ikauniece (LAT) – the Helsinki 2012 heptathlon bronze medallist turns 21
01.06.13 – Marlon Devonish (GBR) – one of the most decorated British sprinters of the last decade turns 37.
02.06.13 – Andres Raja (EST) – seasoned Estonian multi-eventer turns 31
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