Compeed Golden Gala: Vlasic-Di Martino, the high jump clash

On 26th May it will be the 32nd time reigning World champion Blanka Vlasic will clash against Antonietta Di Martino. Starting from 20.20 the Croatian star will renew her battle against the Italian high jump record holder on the Olympic Stadium’s track, where Stefka Kostadinova cleared the current 2.09 world record in 1987. Until now Vlasic beat Di Martino in 25 meetings. Di Martino achieved her major win over Vlasic in 2009 when she the athlete from Cava de’ Tirreni representing the Fiamme Gialle athletics team cleared 2 metres at the Golden Gala prevailing over the Croatian in the process. They are two athletes with two different jumping techniques to raise the bar. Twenty-seven year-old Vlasic can often afford to look up to the bar from her height of 193 cm. For Antonietta, who will turn 33 on 1st June, every competition is a climb well over her height of 169 cm. From this starting point Di Martino has managed to achieve her successful results thanks to her decication, her sacrificies and her technical abilities. She first improved Sara Simeoni’s historic 2.01 Italian record to 2.03, a height she cleared when she won the World silver medal in Osaka in 2007. She also won a medal of the same metal during the 2007 winter season at the European Indoor Championships, a result she improved in 2011 when she won the gold medal in paris in 2011. This year Di Martino also set the Italian Indoor record and the World Indoor seasonal best by clearing 2.04. Vlasic, twice World Indoor and Outdoor champion, added the European Outdoor gold in Barcelona and the IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year’s title in 2010.to her trophy cabinet. Vlasic is the most accredited athlete to set the world all-time record in her discipline. She showed that she has the potential to achieve this goal on 31st August 2009 in Zagreb when she cleared 2.08 in her first attempt. Vlasic won four times in Rome in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. In the last edition of the Golden Gala she equalled the meeting at 2.03. After skipping the indoor season the Croatian returned to competitions on 15th May at the Shanghai meeting where she won with 1.94. On 26th May’s evening Vlasic and Di Martino will not be the only athletes to watch, as the field features Barcelona’s European Outdoor silver medallist Emma Green from Sweden and reigning World and European Indoor silver medallist Ruth Beitia from Spain. Not to write off will be Russian Svetlana Shkolina, who has always come close to the podium in the big international championships but has confirmed at 2 metres level during this year’s indoor season.

The high jump starting list at the 2011 Compeed Golden Gala:
Ruth BEITIA (ESP)
Antonietta DI MARTINO(ITA)
Nadezhda DUSANOVA(UZB)
Emma GREEN TREGARO(SWE)
Svetlana SHKOLINA(RUS)
Levern SPENCER (LCA)
Vita STYOPINA (UKR)
Blanka VLASIC (CRO)