Men’s high jump: The Star wars of the 2014 Golden Gala Pietro Mennea. In Rome the discipline, which has reached an impressive standard for one year, features all the jumpers who have cleared 2.40m in the last 12 months. The Rome field features two Olympic champions Ivan Ukhov and Andrey Silnov, two World Outdoor champions Bohdan Bondarenko and Donald Thomas, a World Indoor champion Mutaz Essa Barshim, two World silver medals Erik Kynard and Aleksey Dmitrik, an Olympic and World bronze medallist Derek Drouin, a World Indoor bronze medallist Andriy Protsenko and Italian record holder Marco Fassinotti (2.34m). All the jumpers who cleared 2.40m will square off against for the first time in Rome. Ukhov improved his outdoor PB to 2.41 in Doha (after jumping 2.42 indoors during the winter). Bondarenko opened his season jumping 2.40 in Tokyo. Drouin joined the 2.40 club in Des Moines. Dmitrik cleared 2.40 during the Indoor season. Barshim cleared 2.40m one year ago and won the World Indoor title in Sopot but did not finish better than fourth with 2.37 in the fantastic first leg of the IAAF Diamond League in Doha. The most frequent head-to-head clashes between the five 2.40m jumpers are even: Bondarenko and Barshim are level to 4-4. Bondarenko and Dmitrik are 6-6, Ukhov and Drouin are 3-3. Ukhov leads with a slight margin of 10-9 over Barshim. Kynard leads 4-3 over Barshim. Barshim leads 3-2 over Drouin. The clashes between Ukhov and Bondarenko have changed this trend: the Russian jumper leads 7-5 over the Ukrainian specialist who won their last four competitions. Bondarenko leads 4-1 over Drouin, 5-1 over Kynard. Ukhov leads 4-1 over Kynard and Barshim. He won most of the competitions against Dmitrik leading 8-2. The Olympic Stadium record of 2.38 is under threat on 5th June. The Stadium record was held by Sweden’s Patrik Sjoberg, Kirzhigistan’s Igor Paklin and Russian Gennadiy Avdeyenko all cleared 2.38 at the 1987 World Championships. Ukraine’s Andriy Sokolovsky tied the Stadium record clearing 2.38 in the 2005 Golden Gala. This height is also the Italian all-comres record whch Paklin set for the first time in Rieti in 1986.
Men’s triple jump: All the medallists of the London 2012 Olympic Games will compete in Rome: gold Christian Taylor, silver Will Claye and bronze Fabrizio Donato, plus Daniele Greco (PB 17.70) who finished fourth in London before coming to the fore with the European Indoor title in 2013. Taylor also won the World Outdoor gold medal in Daegu, Claye won two World Outdoor bronze medals in Daegu and Moscow, a World Indoor title and the Olympic bronze in the long jump. Donato won the Olympic bronze crowning a career which also features the European Outdoor gold medal in Helsinki 2012, the European Indoor gold in 2009 in Turin and the European Indoor silver medal in Paris Bercy in 2011 with 17.73m, which forced Teddy Tamgho to break the World Indoor record to beat the Italian jumper. Taylor ranks fifth in the World Outdoor list with 17.96m. He has clashed against Claye since the competitions in the US College. Claye leads 13-11 in their head-to-head competitions. Cuba will be represented by 16-year-old rising star Lazaro Martinez, who won the World Under 18 title in Donetsk. He became the first Under 18 specialist to jump over the 17 metres barrier when he leapt to 17.24m last February in Habana. Also in the field there is his compatriot Ernesto Revé, who has already jumped 17.58 m and won the World Indoor silver in Sopot and Italian Fabrizio Schembri, who finished eighth in the World Outdoor final in Moscow and won a gold and a bronze medal at the Mediterrenean Games in his career.
Women’s pole vault: The runway where Yelena Isinbayeva set the World title in 2008 with 5.03 in 2008 will stage an exciting battle between Central America, South America and Europe. The headliner will be Cuban Yarisley Silva, reigning World Indoor champion, Olympic silver and World Outdoor bronze medal, the third performer in history with an Outdoor personal best of 4.90m. Her rivals will be Brazilian Fabiana Murer, World champion in Daegu and World Indoor champion in Doha 2010, German Silke Spiegelburg, Czech Jirina Ptacnikova, Greek Nikolita Kiriakopoulou, winner of the first leg of the Diamond League in Doha, Russian Anastasiya Savchenko (PB 4.73m) and German Elisaveta Ryzih. US Jenn Suhr leads the world seasonal list wit 4.67m but the Olympic Stadium is set to host the World seasonal best performance.
Women’s triple jump: It promises to be another narrrow battle which could be decided by just a few centimetres. The main headliners are Colombia’s Catherine Ibarguen and Ukraine’s Olha Salauha. Ibarguen won the World gold medal in Moscow crowning her career which features the World bronze medal in Daegu and the Olympic silver in London. Last Sunday she set her best career performance at sea-level with 14.87m showing that she is ready to reach the 15 metres barrier (she has a career best of 14.99m). Saladuha, who also boasts a career best of 14.99m, won the World title in Daegu and the World Indoor gold, two European titles and the world bronze medals in London and Moscow. It is interesting to note that Ibarguen won the last 10 of their 14 head-to-head clashes. Saladuha won her last clash at the 2012 Golden Gala with 14.75m, when the Colombian jumper finished third just four cm off the Ukrainian specialist. The two multi- medallist will not be the only stars in the field as the line-up also features Ekaterina Koneva, World Indoor gold medallist in Sopot and World Outdoor silver in Moscow, Jamaican Kimberly Williams, World Indoor bronze medallist in Sopot, Russian Anna Pyathykh, who won two World bronze medals in her career. Italy will be represented by Simona La Mantia, European Indoor champion in 2011, European Outdoor silver in Barcelona 2010 and European Indoor bronze medallist one year ago.
<link http: www.ticketone.it>TICKETS
FOLLOW US on <link http: www.facebook.com goldengala _blank facebook>Facebook - <link https: twitter.com goldengala_roma _blank twitter>Twitter @goldengala_roma
03 June, 2014
