Ukhov world lead 236 cm, two world leads 199 cm by Palamar and Friedrich

HUSTOPECE (CZE, Jan 19): Great evening of High Jumping at first leg of fourth Moravia High Jump Tour in small city of Hustopece (some 8000 people). Organisers registered world leading marks, new meeting records and Czech indoor all-comers records in both competitions. Jumpers will continue on Sunday to eastern part of Moravia into Trinec where the final leg will be held on Monday. The main changes for Monday are that new names will be Russian Andrey Tereshin and Ciotti brothers from Italy, on the other side as planned both top two women are flying home. It looks like Ukhov and Thornblad will fight for overall tour win (based on calculating both results together) and the women situation is opened slightly in favor for Strakova.

Russian indoor record holder Ivan Ukhov gave capacity crowd of 600 people in Hustopece near Brno and Austrian boarder with Czech Republic after women another meet record and world lead. In third attempt he weant clearly over 236 cm. By one cm he bettered his own best mark 2008 and meet record of Jaroslav Baba (235 in 2005). But he did not had such an clear sheet as Sweden´s World Indoor bronze medallist Linus Thornblad. Ukhov started at 215 in first, followed by 224 in first. Then his problems started as he jumped once unsuccesfully at 230 and his remaining two attempts saved for 232. In last he made it. In the meantime Thornblad had clean jumping sheet also at 227, 230 and did 232 in second. At 234 again Thornblad prevailed with first jump, Ukhov immediately passed. Thornblad had three very good attempts at 236, but Ukhov was succesfull in third. After that he showed the public one attempt at 241 cm. "It is still start of the season, I need more work on my technique. I think also 240 will come in near future," said Ukhov. Third place for Russian Aleksey Dmitrik who achieved high quality 230 cm. From local elite Svatoslav Ton was the best with clearing 227, Jaroslav Baba achieved 224 and Tomas Janku could not jump due to slight hamstring problem.

Excellent competition by women. Ukrainian Osaka finalist Vita Palamar jumped world leading and new meet record of 199 cm in first try. She was then followed by German Ariana Friedrich who achieved 199 in third. She improved her personal best from last weekend by 2 cm. In both cases the best marks ever in Czech Republic indoors. Meet record 196 by Blanka Vlasic and Venelina Veneva was surpassed already before. First Friedrich in second jumped 197 and then surprisingly Palamar on third. The german was leading the whole evening having first failure only at 197. She is the revelation of current indoor season. Third Czech Iva Strakova went over 195 which means for her olympic qualification. She found her technique little bit later during the evening as she as only one had failures at 175 and 180.   

Results: 1. Ivan Ukhov, RUS 236 MR, WL (215/1, 224/1, 230/x, 232/2, 236/3, 241/x), 2. Linus Thornblad, SWE 234 (215/1, 220/1, 224/1, 227/1, 230/1, 232/2, 234/1, 236/xxx), 3. Aleksey Dmitrik, RUS 230, 4. Svatoslav Ton, CZE 227, 5. Peter Horak, SVK 227, 6. Jaroslav Baba, CZE 224, 7. Oskari Frosen, FIN 224, 8. Gerardo Martinez, MEX 220 NR, 9. Jamie Nieto, USA 220, 10. Viktor Shapoval, UKR 220, 11. Marius Hanniske, GER 215, B-competition: 1. Martijn Nuyens, NED 218

wom: 1. Vita Palamar,UKR 199 MR, WL (185/1, 192/1, 195/3, 197/3, 199/1, 201/xxp), 2. Ariane Friedrich,GER 199 MR, WL (180/1, 185/1, 189/1, 192/1, 195/1, 197/2, 199/3, 201/xpp), 3. Iva Strakova, CZE, 195 (175/2, 180/2, 185/1, 189/1, 192/1, 195/1, 197/xxx), 4. Romana Dubnova, CZE 192, 5. Viktoriya Klyugina, RUS 192, 6t. Viktoriya Styopina, UKR and Barbora Lalakova,CZE 189, 8. Tatyana Efimenko, KGZ 189, 9. Karina Vnukova, LTU 189, 10t. Doreen Amata, NGR 185 NR and Deirdre Ryan,IRL 185, 12. Dora Gyorffy,HUN 185, 13t. Romary Rifka, MEX and Nicole Forrester, CAN 180