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MILAN, Italy - While most of the sport’s attention is focused on the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, there has been significant action on the other side of the Atlantic. At the 8th European Athletics Festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland, tonight, Yevgeniy Lukyanenko of Russia joined the pole vault's six-meter club while Croatian star Blanka Vlasic won her 30th consecutive high jump competition.
Lukyanenko, at 23 already the reigning world champion indoors, cleared 6.01m (19-8 ¾ ) on his first attempt to become the 14th man to clear that still-exclusive barrier. Only seven have ever jumped higher. He added 10cm to his previous best set 16 days ago.
The 24-year-old Vlasic extended her winning streak, currently the longest in the sport, with a third attempt clearance at 2.05m (6-8 ¾ ) before bowing out with three misses at a would-be 2.10m (6-10 ¾ ) world record. Vlasic hasn’t lost a competition since June 15, 2007, when she finished second at the ExxonMobil Bislett Games in Oslo.
Meanwhile, with Haile Gebrselassie’s late hour withdrawal from the 5000m due to a minor injury, the field events will likely play the key role when the Noturrna di Milano meet makes its return after a two-year hiatus here on Wednesday night.
The local spotlight will fall on last year's world championships co-silver medallists Antonietta Di Martino who will be aiming for her first two metre clearance of the season. Di Martino cleared her PB 2.03m (6-8) for the first time in Milan’s Napoleonic era Arena Civica Gianni Brera In the women's pole vault, Russians Svetlana Feofanova, the former world record holder, and Yuliya Golubchikova, the winner at last the European Cup top the field.
World and Olympic long jump champion Tatyana Lebedeva will be making her second outing of the year in the triple jump. A two-time world champion in that event, the 31-year-old will be looking for a significant improvement over her 14.59m jump from a month ago. She'll face Italian record holder Magdaline Martinez and Yamile Aldama, who both, like Lebedeva, have 15m+ jumps to their credit.
Twice world indoor champion Alleyne Francique and Briton Martin Rooney are the class of the men's 400m, although it will be the B race that will command the evening's primary attention.
Oscar "Blade Runner" Pistorius of South Africa will make his first outing since the Court of Arbitratration for Sport ruled that his carbon fibre prosthetics, known as Cheetahs, do not provide him an unfair advantage, clearing him to compete against able-bodied athletes in international competition. The 21-year-old, a double-amputee who has a personal best of 46.56, is well shy of both the A and B Olympic qualifying standards of 45.55 and 45.95.
The women's 400m field boasts the reigning world championships silver medallist Nicola Sanders of Great Britain, and Amantle Montsho of Botswana, the world leader at 49.83 from her victory at altitude at the African Championships in early May.
Eight of the 10 entrants in the women's 800m have run under two minutes, but the focus will lie on Italian Elisa Cusma, a world indoor championships finalist earlier this year.
Britons Simeon Williamson and Craig Pickering lead the field in the men's 100m along with Frenchman Ronald Pognon, while Deresse Mekonnen of Ethiopia, the world indoor 1500m champion, will be chasing his first outdoor victory of the season.
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