Halkia back to international competition in Kalamata

The long expected return of Fani Halkia, the Olympic 400m Hurdles champion, to international level competition, and the participation of the World Pole Vault champion Brad Walker confirm that the host club Messiniakos GS has assembled a high standard meeting in Kalamata, “Papaflesia 2006”, this Saturday, 3 June.

Halkia to clash with the Americans

Halkia returns to international level competition in Kalamata, after opening her season domestically at the end of April, running a 57.03 in the Greek Clubs Championships in Athens. That run marked her return after a 20 month absence from the sport. This year, she is focussed on the European Championships in Gothenburg.

Two American champions also participate, the bronze medallist of the World Championships in Helsinki, Sandra Glover, but also Sheena Johnson, fourth in the Athens Olympics. Along with them will compete one of the most recent revelations of the event, Bulgaria’s Vanya Stamboleva - who plans to ran in both the flat 400m and 400m Hurdles races - Russian Yekaterina Bikert, who has a personal best of 53.72 (2004), and the Cypriot runner Androula Sialou.

The entry list of the event has becomes even stronger after the last minute announcement of the participation of Andrea Blackett. The Barbados’ hurdler was 6th in the World Championships last year and holds sixth position in the IAAF World Ranking for the event.

Nazarova vs Stamboleva in the 400m

As just mentioned, Bulgarian Vanya Stamboleva also enters the event in which she won the silver medal in the World Indoor Championships in Moscow. In the flat 400m, she has to face the Russian Champion Natalya Nazarova, who holds a personal best of 49.95 (2004). Russia’s Tatyana Firova with a career’s best of 50.41, and a second Bulgarian, Mariyana Dimitrova, 6th in Moscow last winter, are also two interesting entrants.

Horizontal jumps: Oprea and Marinova

Romania’s Marian Oprea, the Olympic silver medallist and World Championship bronze medallist, is the best participant in the men’s Triple Jump. Oprea who leapt to an impressive 17.74m in the indoor season, landed a jump of 17.29m in Doha recently and is expected to reach an even better performance.

Slovak Dmitrij Valukevic with a career’s best of 17.57m, Russia’s Vitaliy Moskalenko, Ukraine’s Viktor Yastrebov, and the Greek national record holder Konstantinos Zalagitis will also try for marks over 17 metres.

In the women’s event, Sydney’s Olympic Champion, Tereza Marinova returned to shape last winter when she made the Moscow World Championships final, placing 6th with 14.37m. Bulgaria’s 29-year-old champion prepares now for the European Championships and attempts her opening outdoor meeting of the year. Marinova has to face the former European champion, Greece’s Olga Vasdeki, Ukraine’s Tetyana Shchurenko and Oleksandra Stadnyuk, who was 7th in Helsinki, and Russia’s Irina Vasilyeva, 7th in the European Championships in 2002.

Vertical Jumps: Walker and Veneva

American Brad Walker, the 2006 World Indoor champion and also dominant in the IAAF World Rankings in the Pole Vault, is one of the brightest stars of the meeting. Walker, the World outdoor silver medallist has already cleared 5.63m earlier in this season and is going to have a close competition with the Russian champion Igor Pavlov, the previous World Indoor winner, and three more Russians, Pavel Gerasimov, Dmitriy Kuptsov and the national indoor champion Dmitriy Starodubtsev. The new Greek star Konstantinos Filippidis who broke the national record 5 times last year to reach 5.75m as a junior, will have the opportunity to significantly improve his season’s best of 5.15m.

Bulgaria’s experienced Venelina Veneva opens her high jumping season in Kalamata. The 32-year-old athlete, who has made all indoor and outdoor World championships finals since 2001, competes with Russia’s Yekaterina Shavchenko, 4th in the Moscow World Indoor Championships, Tatyana Kivimyagi who took 5th position in the European Indoor Championships last year, Ukraine’s Irina Kovalenko, and the 20-year-old Greek Antonia Stergiou, who set a personal best of 1.86m earlier this season.

LaTasha Jenkins tops the sprint entries

American LaTasha Jenkins, silver medallist in the 200m final at the 2001 World Championships is the most distinguished entry of the women’s sprint races. Jenkins has a personal best of 11.02 and in Kalamata has to compete with her compatriot Nolle Graham, Cameroon’s Sylvie Mballa Eloundou who ran a personal best of 11.13 last year, but also Nigerians Endurance Ojokolo and Gloria Kemasuode, both members of the national relay team which placed 7th in Helsinki World Championships last year.

US sprinter, Tyree Gailes with a personal best of 10.11 is the fastest entrant of the men’s race. The Netherlands’ Caimin Douglas has entered both 100m and 200m races, along with Ghana’s Seth Amoo and Australian naturalised Nigerian Ambrose Ezenwa.

Kenyans and Romanians in the middle distances

Three top Romanians enter the women's 800m race. Corina Dumbravean, the 1500m silver medallist at the 2001 European Indoor Championships, Simona Barcau (personal best of 2:02.23), and 18-year-old Adela Batranu are challenged by the new blood of Russian middle distance running, the 19-year-old Mariya Shapayeva, who ran a personal best of 2:01.83 during the last indoor season. Poland’s Ewelina Setowska, a finalist in Moscow’s World Indoor Championships, and the young Greeks Eleni Filandra and Maria Dalaka will also be present.

Kenya’s Benson Esho with a personal best of 3.35.80 and his compatriots Phliemon Kimutai and Gilbert Kipchoge are the main 1500m runners of the meeting so far.

Special honours for Emmiyan and Topic

The meeting’s host club has decided to honour two major athletes of the past for their contribution to athletics, the Armenian long jumper Robert Emmiyan, holder of the European record since 1987 (8.86m) and former European champion, and the Serbian high jumper Dragutin Topic, also a former European champion, and currently Technical Manager for Serbia and Montenegro.

Michalis Nikitaridis for the IAAF

Entry lists of the meeting are published here:
http://www.athletix.org/Results06/Kalamata_out06.html