Stefan Holm celebrates 2.32m in Malmö (© Göran Lenz)
Stefan Holm of Sweden has been one of the most consistent and reliable performers in the High Jump in recent years. But it is only in the last couple of years Holm, now 29, has made the most of his potential and has won major outdoor competitions. At the 2003 edition of the World Championships in Paris, Holm took the silver medal.
In Athens, Holm won the Olympic gold medal. His impressive form continued into the indoor season which he crowned with clearing 2.40m at the European Indoor Championships in Madrid - an amazing result for a jumper who is only 181 cm tall.
This year, Holm has shown that 2.30m-2.32m is all routine for him, although he has won only one TDK Golden League, Paris. Holm’s best result is 2.36m in Rome in July but that was not enough to win the event: Andriy Sokolovskyy of Ukraine cleared 2.38m. That was Sokolovskyy’s PB. Rome was by far the best competition so far this year, with four men clearing at least 2.33m.
Before Rome, Sokolovskyy lost to another Ukrainian Yuriy Krymarenko, when both men cleared 2.33m at Langen. Krymarenko has not cleared 2.30m since.
The only other jumper who has cleared 2.38m this season is the defending World champion, Jacques Freitag of South Africa. His result is the new African record. Freitag set the record in early March in his home country, and in the summer months his performances in Europe have been rather patchy.
The World champion from 1999, Vyacheslav Voronin of Russia, has been consistently strong. His best mark is 2.32m. Another Russian counted among the medal contenders is European champion Yaroslav Rybakov but his season’s best mark of 2.33m was only good enough for the fourth place at the TDK Golden League meet at Rome.
The man who took third place that remarkable night at Rome was Jaroslav Baba of the Czech Republic. Baba’s 2.36m is a new national record. He has competed often this summer and he has repeatedly cleared 2.30m or more. At the Under 23 European Championships he was the winner with 2.29m. Baba was born in 1984, as was another promising challenger at the World Championships, Michal Bieniek of Poland. Bieniek has cleared 2.36 and 2.34 at Biala Podlaska in his home country, but has rarely competed outside Poland.
It is not just the youngsters who have potential for surprise: Dragutin Topic of Serbia and Montenegro won the European Championship in 1990, but this year he has still cleared 2.30m at 34 years of age.
Matt Hemingway of the United States took silver at the Olympics last year. He won the US trials with a modest 2.27m, but may well be in the competition for medals in Helsinki. So may be the Grzegorz Sposob of Poland, who is a very consistent jumper. 2005 European Junior Champion Ivan Ukhov of Russia has cleared the bar twice at 2.30m, and at 19 years of age, could provide a surprise. Another challenger will be Nicola Ciotti of Italy, who won the European Cup Super League in Florence.
Helsinki 2005 media team
