Mariya Lasitskene and Yaroslava Mahuchikh will go head-to-head for the first time since their epic encounter at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha at the Anhalt 2021 in Dessau, a World Athletics Continental Tour Bronze meeting, on Friday (21) evening.
Lasitskene won her third successive title with an unblemished card through until 2.04m on that occasion but she was pushed all the way by the then 18-year-old Mahuchikh who cleared world U20 records of 2.02m and 2.04m to win silver behind the Russian on countback.
Still only 19, Mahuchikh has dominated the high jump since then and the Ukrainian enjoyed an unbeaten indoor season which was highlighted by a sparkling 2.06m clearance in Banska Bystrica followed by gold at the European Indoor Championships, her first senior title.
Lasitskene has been absent from the international scene over the last eighteen months and was unable to defend her European indoor title but the Russian was recently granted neutral status to compete internationally. Dessau represents her first non-domestic competition since Doha.
Lasitskene and Mahuchikh are also due to go head-to-head in the Gateshead Diamond League on Sunday (23) evening and she is also due to face Olympic and European heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam in Montreuil on 1 June.
Reigning world and European champion Malaika Mihambo is also due to make her outdoor season’s debut in the long jump in Dessau.
Mihambo won at this meeting last year with a world leading mark of 7.03m to become the only athlete to surpass the seven metre-line outdoors, a feat made all the more impressive as Mihambo was jumping off an abbreviated approach on that occasion.
Mihambo’s principal rival in Dessau will be Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova from Belarus, the silver medallist at the 2019 European Indoor Championships in Glasgow where Mihambo suffered the first and only defeat of her standout campaign.
Fresh from extending his world leading mark to a phenomenal 94.20m on Wednesday evening, Johannes Vetter will go in search of his fifth successive victory of the season and perhaps his fourth successive 90 metre-plus competition if he has recovered sufficiently from his exploits in Ostrava.
His long-time domestic rival Thomas Rohler, the reigning Olympic and European champion, is not competing due to a precaution but Vetter is part of a strong German cast in the javelin which also includes Julian Weber and Bernhard Seifert. The runner-up to Vetter at the European Throwing Cup in Split, Andrian Mardare from Moldova is also due to compete in Dessau.
Another key head-to-head in Dessau brings together two-time world pole vault champion Sam Kendricks against Poland’s Piotr Lisek who has shared the podium with the American at the last two World Championships.
On the track, former European indoor and outdoor champion Cindy Roleder returns to racing less than five months after giving birth to her daughter. Roleder, who is targeting the Olympic qualifying time of 12.84 in the 100m hurdles, faces reigning European champion Elvira Herman from Belarus and her teammate Alina Talay, the European champion as far back as 2012.
Up to 500 spectators who have been vaccinated twice will be allowed access into the Paul-Greifzu Stadium.
The event will be streamed live here from 6.25pm local time although geoblocking restrictions might apply.
Full start-lists and live results can be found here.