Thörnblad Sets - and Loses - WL on Saturday

Story written by EPelle

Friidrott.se reported last evening that Linus Thörnblad, fourth at the 2006 European Outdoor Championships here on his home turf in Sweden, won the Adeccospel in Malmö with a new world-leading 2.31m clearance (results link).

The mark, which improved by one centimetre Russian Ivan Uchov's previous world-leading mark of 2.30m set 7-January in Yekaterinaburg, was a season's best for the Swede, who then had the bar raised to 2.35m.

Thörnblad, who turns 22 on 6-March, took two very good attempts at the would-be personal best, narrowly missing a mark which would have been the equal third-best all-time indoors for Swedes, tying Staffan Strand's mark from five years ago.

Thörnblad, the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships bronze medalist, must have felt an urgent need to raise the bar, as his hours-old world-leading mark was short-lived when Russian Andrey Tereshin jumped 2.33m at the Moravská Daylong Tour in the Czech Republic.

Hometown favourites Jaroslav Baba, Svatoslav Ton and Tomas Janku - who finished a surprising second at the 2006 European Championships ahead of Stefan Holm, and thus denied Thörnblad a medal spot - finished far out of the running, with clearances of 2.20m, 2.24m and 2.27m respectively.

Tereshin, who finished second at the 2005 World Indoor Championships in Moscow (2.35m), failed twice at 2.30m, and took three attempts to clear 2.33m. He had the fourth-best jump (2.36m) indoors in 2006.

Croatian Blanka Vlasic made her final effort at 1.96m count, as she defeated 2006 European silver medalist Venelina Veneva, who also cleared the same height. Vlasic passed at 1.98m, and failed to clear the 2.00m barrier.

The high jump promises to be a fantastic event this season as Russian Andrej Silnov, the 2006 European Champion, having spoken of taking the world record up to 2.46m (IAAF report), and the European Indoor Championships final expected to rekindle the magic which saw Stefan Holm jump 2.40m two years ago in Madrid.

Fifteen athletes jumped 2.30m or higher indoors in 2006, led by Russian Jaroslav Rybakov's 2.37m winning performances in Moscow and Arnstadt.

Ukhov finished second to Rybakov in Arnstadt, setting a personal best of 2.37m. Ukrainian Andriy Sokolovskyy led Tereshin and Silnov at 2.36m, with Thörnblad occupying the six spot on the 2006 world indoor list with a 2.34m clearance from Banská Bystrica, the meet where Sokolovskyy set his indoor best.

Thörnblad, who won the 2006 World Athletics final, is trained by Stanislaw Szczyrba, and has now jumped over 2.30m on 12 occasions.

Moravská Daylong Tour
Men's Results:

1. Andrey Tereshin RUS 2.33m; 2. Peter Horák SVK 2.27m; Victor Moya CUB 2.24m; 3. Aleksandr Shustov RUS 2.24m; 4. Viktor Shapoval UKR 2.24m; 5. Aleksey Dmitrik RUS 2.24m; 6. Stanislav Malyarenko RUS 2.20m; 7. Tomáš Janků CZE 2.20m; 8. Andrea Bettinelli ITA 2.20m; 9. Svatoslav Ton CZE 2.20m; 10. Kwaku Boateng CAN 2.20m; 11. Jaroslav Bába CZE 2.15m; 12. BenChallenger GBR 2.15m; 13. Luboš Benko SVK 2.10m; 14. Jiří Křehula CZE 2.10m

Women's Results:

1. Blanka Vlasic CRO 1.96m; 2. Venelina Veneva BUL 1.96m; 3. Yekaterina Kuntsevich RUS 1.94m; 4. Marina Aitova KAZ 1.92m; 5. Romana Dubnová CZE 1.87m; 5. Oana Pantelimon ROM 1.87m; 7. Andrea Ispan ROM 1.80m; 7. Svetlana Shkolina RUS 1.80m; 9. Maresa Cadienhead CAN 1.80m; 10. Elena Brambilla ITA 1.75m

Full results found here.
IAAF story here.
Linus Thörnblad's homepage.

Thörnblad's 10-best marks:

1. 2.34m - European Champs-Final, Göteborg - 2006-08-09 (4)
2. 2.34m - Banska Bystrica, Slovakia – 2006-02-14 (2)
3. 2.33m - World Athletic Final, Stuttgart - 2006-09-10 (1)
4. 2.33m - Indoor World Champs -Final, Moscow – 2006-03-11 (3)
5. 2.33m - Adeccospelen, Malmö, - 2006-01-21 (1)
6. 2.31m - Swedish Indoor Champs, Malmö - 2005-02-12 (1)
7. 2.31m - Telenorgalan, Karlskrona - 2005-06-12 (1)
8. 2.30m - Finnkampen, Helsinki - 2006-08-25 (1)
9. 2.30m - MAI-Galan, Malmö - 2006-08-22 (1)
10. 2.30m - Lundahoppet, Lund 2006-06-22 (1)