Moscow, Russia – On Monday (11) the th of June the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium will host the Moscow Challenge as the IAAF World Challenge series resumes in the Russian capital.
The Moscow Challenge is a young meeting that was launched only in 2011. But now it’s status is more important. It is included in the series of IAAF World Challenge Meetings and is the second last in the series prior to the Olympics Games in London.
Besides the competition the meeting will be the important test not only for the athletes, but also for the organisers of Moscow’s 2013 World Championships that will take place at the same stadium. And finally it may play a role in the selection especially for the Russian national team.
More then 150 athletes from 42 countries are expected to take part. And naturally many Russian athletes are very much looking forward to achieve the standards set for Olympic participation. The men’s Pole Vault is one of the events that shouldn’t be ignored. Let’s hope for Moscow’s weather not to be too capricious. For the public in Luzhniki will have a chance to see the jumps of the world silver medal winner Bjorn Otto (GER) who is second on the outdoor world list of the outdoor season, the European Championships bronze medallist Przemyslaw Czerwinski from Poland, the silver medal winner of the Olympic games Yevgeniy Lukianenko and his Russian compatriot Igor Pavlov, a former World and European indoor champion.  more

The IAAF says Usain Bolt is wrong and new starting blocks to be used at the London Olympics will enhance the performance of athletes.Newly-designed starting blocks to be used at the London Olympics will “enhance” the performance of athletes, according to the sport’s world governing body, the IAAF, and not slow them down as claimed by Usain Bolt.The blocks redesigned by Swiss timekeepers Omega for this season’s Diamond League and Olympics came in for criticism last week from none other than Jamaican sprint star Bolt, the world’s fastest man whose voice carries considerable weight.But the IAAF insisted that changes to the starting blocks, which athletes use in the 100m, 200m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m relays, as well as the 100, 110 and 400m hurdles, would not affect those using them.”Visually the starting blocks look very different,” an IAAF spokesman told AFP. “Yes, it is true that Omega has changed a few things.”Actually they redesigned the starting blocks, but the changes have been introduced in order to enhance the measurement of the athlete’s reaction times and to enhance the performance of the athletes.”  more

Sergei Bubka was the undisputed master of the pole vault over a 14-year period when the Ukrainian produced a unique run of results breaking 35 world records, winning an Olympic title, and completing 44 jumps at 6m or more.After the world championship was created in 1983, he won it six times in a row. Considered to be the greatest vaulter of all time, he did not compete at the Olympics in 1984 in Los Angeles because of the Soviet Union’s boycott of the Games. So he had to wait until 1988 to make his Olympic debut.In Seoul 1988, Bubka made up for lost time to win what would prove to be his only Olympic gold — clearing a height of 5.90 metres for a new Games record. Nevertheless, he had to rally from a rough start. He suffered his first miss at 18 feet, 8¼ inches, more than a foot below his world record of 19-10½. Bubka was sitting in fourth place with two misses before regaining form and clearing the then-Olympic record 19-4¼ (5.9 meters) by about seven inches to capture the gold.He then competed for the Unified Team in 1992, but in the shock result of the Barcelona Olympics he failed to register a height in the final. Injury meant that Bubka missed the 1996 Games, before he competed for the Ukraine in 2000 at the age of 36. However, by then, he was past his best and did not get through qualifying. source

BROCKVILLE – If there was a medal for multitasking, Anna Larsson would win gold.After all, the Sir John A. Macdonald student competed in two events that were running simultaneously Saturday at the all-Ontario track and field championships.First up was midget girls long jump. Half an hour later, with the long jump competition still running, the midget/junior girls pole vault final got under way.“I was a little stressed out,” said Larsson, 15. “I couldn’t stop thinking about the pole vault. I kept looking over while I was doing long jump.”Luckily, the two events were running side by side. That made the logistics at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations track and field championships a bit easier.But balancing both sports took its toll on the Grade 9 athlete.Larsson had the third-best seed time in long jump, but had three disappointing leaps and failed to make the final eight vying for a medal.However, she more than made up for it, by scurrying over to the pole vault, which was an hour into action, to win the gold medal.“It’s really exciting,” she said, after clearing 3.10 metres on the golden vault. “It was really fun and I’m glad I did so well.”The pole vault was a mixed category event, pitting girls in Grade 9 and 10 against one another. That made the victory even sweeter for the freshman. She also one-upped older brothers Emil and Ruben, both of whom medaled at OFSAA as midgets, but never grabbed gold  more

Pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie lived up to his billing as the star of the Meeting Lille Metropole, a European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting, when he went over 5.82m on his second attempt in the northern French city on Saturday. Lavillenie, the current European champion indoors and outdoors and the 2012 world-leader in his event, is unbeaten this summer and took his winning streak to seven competitions. He unsuccessfully tried a world-leading 5.92m. “But it’s still a great rehearsal for the big events to come. With the Europeans and Olympics, this is a very interesting season,” commented the ebullient Lavillenie. Poland’s Lukasz Michalski, who was fourth at the World Championships in the South Korean city of Daegu last summer, was second with 5.62m.  more