Following a series of explosive jumps, Ariane Friedrich celebrates a huge pb, national record and world leading height of 2.06m (© Getty Images)
There couldn’t have been a more appropriate preview of the women’s High Jump final than the one which played out in front of nearly 64,000 people two months ago at the same stadium where the two key players are expected to meet again on the evening of 20 August.
There, reigning World champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and rising German star Ariane Friedrich met for the first time this season, and propelled by the crowd at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Friedrich rose to the occasion by not only nabbing an upset victory, but underscoring her coming of age by sailing over 2.06m with her first try to break Heike Henkel's 18-year-old German national record. In the final, the expected sell-out crowd will expect nothing short of a rerun, and both know that it’ll quite likely take nothing less to capture the win.
When she took the World title in Osaka two years ago, Vlasic was seemingly unstoppable. Then, she was in the midst of win streak that she would eventually stretch to 33 competitions, by far the longest unbeaten stretch in the sport in recent years. She was again nearly peerless in 2008, winning 22 of 24 meets and producing 12 of the season’s best 14 jumps. Nonetheless, and perhaps unfairly, her Olympic campaign will be most remembered for those two blemishes on an otherwise flawless record: first to Tia Hellebaut in Beijing where she had to settle for second despite jumping 2.05m, and again in the Golden League finale in Brussels, a loss which wound up costing her half a million dollars. Notably, that loss came at the hand of Friedrich.
Since then, the two have met five times, with the German holding a narrow 3-2 edge. Among those victories was Friedrich’s command performance in Torino in March when she took the European indoor title, with Vlasic a well beaten fifth, and her momentum has largely continued. The 25-year-old has won eight of her nine outdoor meets, and scaled 2.00m or better on six occasions. Of the large German contingent who’ll compete in Berlin, few will carry as heavy a burden of expectation than Friedrich.
Despite some light tarnish on her record over the past 12 months, Vlasic remains, all things considered, arguably the world’s finest jumper. The Croatian has won nine of her 11 competitions outdoors, and has cleared two metres or better in all but two of those. She hasn’t jumped as high as Friedrich this year, but has jumped higher more consistently, returning to the German capital with seven of the season’s 10 best leaps. In their last meeting, Vlasic beet the German on countback in Monaco where each sailed over 2.03m.
But as Vlasic has often insisted over the past few years, the event isn’t only about the current Big-Two. Those words rang true at Rome’s Golden Gala last month when Italian record holder and reigning World co-silver medallist Antonietta Di Martino got the better of the Croatian with her second 2.00m clearance of the season. The field will also include Russian champion Anna Chicherova (2.00m, ‘09), who shared runner-up honours with the Italian in Osaka and took third in Beijing last summer, and who is rounding into form at just the right moment.
Only seven women have ever topped 2.06m or better; three of them will be jumping in Berlin. Along with Vlasic and Friedrich, Yelena Slesarenko (1.96m, ‘09) is part of that elite club, scaling that height to take 2004 Olympic gold. But in better form at the moment is Ruth Beitia. The Spaniard, who finished second behind Friedrich at the European indoor championships, was also second to the German at the European Team Championships in Leiria, where she bested Di Martino. In mid-July, she topped 2.01m, just a centimetre shy of her national record.
Other outside medal contenders include Marina Aitova of Kazakhstan, who took sole possession of the Asian record in Athens last month with a 1.99m leap, and American champion Chaunte Howard, the 2005 World silver medallist, who has cleared 1.98m this season, and finished second in Oslo and third in Rome.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
There, reigning World champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia and rising German star Ariane Friedrich met for the first time this season, and propelled by the crowd at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, Friedrich rose to the occasion by not only nabbing an upset victory, but underscoring her coming of age by sailing over 2.06m with her first try to break Heike Henkel's 18-year-old German national record. In the final, the expected sell-out crowd will expect nothing short of a rerun, and both know that it’ll quite likely take nothing less to capture the win.
When she took the World title in Osaka two years ago, Vlasic was seemingly unstoppable. Then, she was in the midst of win streak that she would eventually stretch to 33 competitions, by far the longest unbeaten stretch in the sport in recent years. She was again nearly peerless in 2008, winning 22 of 24 meets and producing 12 of the season’s best 14 jumps. Nonetheless, and perhaps unfairly, her Olympic campaign will be most remembered for those two blemishes on an otherwise flawless record: first to Tia Hellebaut in Beijing where she had to settle for second despite jumping 2.05m, and again in the Golden League finale in Brussels, a loss which wound up costing her half a million dollars. Notably, that loss came at the hand of Friedrich.
Since then, the two have met five times, with the German holding a narrow 3-2 edge. Among those victories was Friedrich’s command performance in Torino in March when she took the European indoor title, with Vlasic a well beaten fifth, and her momentum has largely continued. The 25-year-old has won eight of her nine outdoor meets, and scaled 2.00m or better on six occasions. Of the large German contingent who’ll compete in Berlin, few will carry as heavy a burden of expectation than Friedrich.
Despite some light tarnish on her record over the past 12 months, Vlasic remains, all things considered, arguably the world’s finest jumper. The Croatian has won nine of her 11 competitions outdoors, and has cleared two metres or better in all but two of those. She hasn’t jumped as high as Friedrich this year, but has jumped higher more consistently, returning to the German capital with seven of the season’s 10 best leaps. In their last meeting, Vlasic beet the German on countback in Monaco where each sailed over 2.03m.
But as Vlasic has often insisted over the past few years, the event isn’t only about the current Big-Two. Those words rang true at Rome’s Golden Gala last month when Italian record holder and reigning World co-silver medallist Antonietta Di Martino got the better of the Croatian with her second 2.00m clearance of the season. The field will also include Russian champion Anna Chicherova (2.00m, ‘09), who shared runner-up honours with the Italian in Osaka and took third in Beijing last summer, and who is rounding into form at just the right moment.
Only seven women have ever topped 2.06m or better; three of them will be jumping in Berlin. Along with Vlasic and Friedrich, Yelena Slesarenko (1.96m, ‘09) is part of that elite club, scaling that height to take 2004 Olympic gold. But in better form at the moment is Ruth Beitia. The Spaniard, who finished second behind Friedrich at the European indoor championships, was also second to the German at the European Team Championships in Leiria, where she bested Di Martino. In mid-July, she topped 2.01m, just a centimetre shy of her national record.
Other outside medal contenders include Marina Aitova of Kazakhstan, who took sole possession of the Asian record in Athens last month with a 1.99m leap, and American champion Chaunte Howard, the 2005 World silver medallist, who has cleared 1.98m this season, and finished second in Oslo and third in Rome.
Bob Ramsak for the IAAF
