23rd June 2008 00:40
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| A world leading 2.06m clearance for Blanka Vlasic |
While in the long jump pit, Olympic, World and European medallists Carolina Kl…±ft and Hrisopiyi Devetsi were locked in combat, over on the high jump fan Blanca Vlasic was measuring her run-up for the start of her best performance the season so far, while Türkiye's Nevin Yanit was running a searing 100m hurdles, before later in the day taking on Olympic champion, Fani Halkia, in the 200m.
The pick of the bunch, though, was Vlasic. In what was virtually a master class, she went cleanly over 2.06 for the best leap in the world this year before failing three times at a new best of 2.08. She now possesses the top seven heights of 2008 and is one of the clearest favourites for gold in Beijing.
Right from her first effort, Carolina Kl…±ft was clearly much more at home in the long jump pit than when triple jumping. Her initial jump may have been a foul, but it boded well for the afternoon.
Sure enough, the second round showed that the first was just a teaser as the Swede hit the board perfectly, going out to a season's best 6.87 with a zero wind, just 10cm short of her best, as she served notice that in Beijing she was going to be a contender to be reckoned with.
In a role reversal from the day before, Hrisopiyi Devetsi (GRE) was finding it difficult to find her range, but it all clicked at the third time of asking as she hit the sand at a windy 6.74 before fouling in the final round.
The women hammer throwers had the run of the stadium for the opening event of the afternoon, but former European Junior champion and double World Junior gold Ivana Brkljacic had difficulty adjusting her sights, finding the cage on two attempts out of four. Her two valid throws would have been good enough to win, though, as she hurled the implement out to a decisive 69.37 in round two for a comfortable victory.
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| Halil Akkas trailing Mustafa Mohamed before beating the Swede in the final metres |
Favourite for the hurdles, Sweden's Robert Kronberg did not have it all his own way as he was pushed all the way to the line by Switzerland's Andreas Kundert and Slovenia's Damyan Zlatnar. The Swede twisted his body over the line just 0.01 ahead of the Swiss for maximum points.
In the women's high hurdles, local Nevin Yanit set the stadium alight with a blistering 12.73, winning by a good three metres. That would have been a new Turkish record had it not been for the wind that was slightly over the limit at 2.3mps.
Mattias Claesson (SWE) was yet another Swedish winner as his team