Kajsa Bergqvist clears 2.06m in Eberstadt

To help the Eberstadt meeting celebrate its 25th edition, Sweden’s Kajsa Bergqvist, the reigning European champion and last season’s top-ranked high jumper, shook off some of the inconsistencies which have clouded her appearances of recent weeks and moved closer to that event’s top spot on the all-time list with a spectacular world-leading 2.06m performance to win the women’s event on Saturday.  

Bergqvist’s jump was the highest performance since Stefka Kostadinova’s clearance of 2.07 metres in September 1988. 

Putting the jump into another perspective, the entire decade of the 1990s did not see a jump as high as Bergqvist’s performance on Saturday. 

It was a meeting-record jump which broke her own Swedish record and moved Bergqvist into the top three among history’s outdoor jumpers. 

Only Bulgaria’s Kostadinova - whose 2.09m world record is set to pass the sixteen-year-old mark during the Paris Championships - and her countrywoman Lyudmila Andonova (at 2.07m) stand ahead of the Swede on the outdoor high jump rolls. (Indoors, the 2.07m world record of Germany’s Heike Henkel is the only mark superior to Bergqvist’s achievement.)

Ironically, it was Bergqvist’s first visit to Eberstadt, and it came after repeated endorsements of the high jump stadium in this wine-growing village from her male Swedish counterparts. Clearly, in her mind, the product totally lived up to the advance billing. 

“It’s definitely the best high jump surface I’ve ever been on,” she said at the end of the competition. 

Perhaps because of unfamiliarity with the venue or because of some recent technique problems, the 26-year-old Monaco-based Bergqvist decided to start jumping with the majority of the field at the opening height of 1.80. 

After a first-jump success there, she clipped off each height in succession on the first attempt, continuing with a string of successful jumps without any apparent thought of passing. Her sixth consecutive clearance of the day at 1.98m [“Now I’m back where I want to be”] preceded a 2.00m jump in which she barely skimmed over the bar. 

But Bergqvist quickly adjusted for jump number eight, a magnificent clearance at 2.02m [“perhaps the best jump of my life”] which finally achieved the win, as the only other remaining competitor, Vita Palamar of the Ukraine, was eliminated after nearly achieving a personal best at that height. 

Bergqvist then bypassed a meaningless 2.04m for a would-be national record 2.06m, and after barely nicking the bar off on her first jump - the first miss of the day - she reaped the reward on her tenth jump of the afternoon.

After a quick huddle with her coach, Bengt Jonsson, she then flashed two open hands to the competition officials - ten fingers, meaning “2.10m” in high-jump sign language - for an attempt on the existing world record.

Twice, on jumps two and three, she had the required hip height, but nudged the bar off the standards with her legs. Still, the World Record remains a reachable goal for Bergqvist, who, at 1.75m, is one of the smallest jumpers in the elite ranks.

“After my 2.05m last year in Poznañ, I asked for 2.10m to get a feeling for it. And today was just the same.” 

This performance couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the Swedish star, who admitted that her technique has suffered in the past several months. With 27 performances at 2.00m and higher during her career, only two have come in the current outdoor season. 

As her coach explained, “We backed off some of the usual training because of her Achilles problem [suffered at the 2002 European Indoor], and we haven’t gotten completely back onto schedule.”

Bergqvist also felt that the many adjustments which had been made to accommodate this physical problem had left her somewhat insecure in her technique. “I went from an eight-step approach to a six-step approach, and never could get into the right rhythm. I came to this competition from a bad ‘position’, after a number of poor performances. I was just trying to find my technique again. This has put me under great mental stress, with the Championships getting closer.” 

The Eberstadt visit indicated that Bergqvist is obviously back on track. 

The men’s competition on Sunday was hard pressed to equal the levels of the women’s event, not only because of Bergqvist’s achievement but also because of the rains which entered the area shortly before the start of the competition.

And although the precipitation ended midway through the jumps at 2.27m, the wet conditions were still on everyone’s minds.

In an ironic twist, it was the jumper who had the most to fear from the rain who came out on top among the four jumpers who cleared 2.30m. Jacques Freitag, the former World Junior Champion from South Africa, jumped blemish-free from his opening 2.15m through his winning height to come away with the special grand prize of wine in a quantity equal to his weight.  

The 21-year-old’s winning 2.30m leap was superb, with at least six centimetres clearance, and Freitag himself was disappointed not to have gone higher.

“I broke my ankle badly last year jumping in the rain, and I seem to have a phobia now about wet conditions,” the imposing 2.07m-high Freitag said. “I am a bit conservative in my lean when it gets wet, and this kept me from 2.33m or higher today. But I really want to jump 2.40 soon. I want it so bad, I can taste it.”

He was enthusiastic about his return to form after a year of inactivity due to the injury, even though he still wears an ankle brace on his right foot for support while competing. 

“Today’s competition was the highest I’ve ever jumped under such circumstances. It’s like I’m overcoming a fear. I’m really in the best shape of life right now, and I just messed up after 2.30m,” he continued. 

Freitag had arrived - appropriately enough - on Friday after a flight from Johannesburg and found no one waiting for him at the Frankfurt airport. But even a 3½-hour wait for a ride to Eberstadt could not diminish his enthusiasm for the competition atmosphere. 

Like Bergqvist, Freitag was making his first appearance here and declared that “Eberstadt will be a Mecca for me for the rest of my life.” 

Perhaps the second place from Jamaica’s Germaine Mason was even less expected than Freitag’s win, given the infrequency of rain during competitions in his home country and a performance just one centimetre under his personal best. “I just tried to keep my focus today, and things went well,” said the bronze medallist from last year’s World Junior Championships.

The day was also an important barometer for US champion Jamie Nieto, who again jumped a PB 2.30m and finished third, just ahead of world indoor champion Stefan Holm at the same height. 

The European U23 champion from last weekend, Poland’s Aleksander Walerianczyk made a rare appearance outside of Poland and was immediately thrust under the competition microscope after his 2.32m and 2.36m performances earlier in the month. Struggling with the wet conditions, the 20-year-old engineering student finished ninth at 2.24m.

“It’s been a good month until now,” said the ever-smiling Walerianczyk. “I knew I couldn’t keep jumping in the 2.30s forever.  Eventually, I had to fail, and today was the day.” 

As increasingly more meetings struggle under financial pressure, the Eberstadt competition seems to grow stronger with each season. With a larger budget already needed with the addition of the women’s event last year, meeting director Peter Schramm and sponsor manager Harry Brunnet announced the addition of seven additional sponsors for this year. Certainly, Eberstadt is one competition that the high jumpers can indelibly mark in their future calendars. 

Ed Gordon for the IAAF

Results

MEN (27.7.):  1.  Freitag (RSA) 2.30;  2. Mason (JAM) 2.30;  3. Nieto (USA) 2.30;  4. Holm (SWE) 2.30;  5. Sokolovskyy (UKR) 2.27;  6. Rybakov (RUS) 2.27;  7. Boswell (CAN) 2.27;  8. Strand (SWE) 2.24;  9. Walerianczyk (POL) 2.24;  10. T Janku (CZE) 2.24;  11. Brayko (RUS) and Harris (USA) 2.15;  No height:  Hemingway (USA). 

WOMEN (26.7.):  1. Bergqvist (SWE) 2.06 (world leader);  2. Palamar (UKR) 2.00;  3. Styopina (UKR) 1.98;  4. Cloete (RSA) 1.98;  5. Waller (USA) 1.98;  6. Mikhalchenko (UKR) and Slesarenko (RUS) 1.95;  8. Rath (GER) 1.92;  9. Vlasic (CRO) 1.92;  10. Efimenko (KGZ) 1.88;  11. Schötz (GER) 1.88;  12. Sagonas (GER) and Skotnik (GER) 1.88.