World champion Chicherova to compete at Banska Bystrica high jump meeting | 18.01.2012
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| World high jump champion Anna Chicherova of Russia. (Picture Alliance) |
Chicherova opened her 2012 account with a bang by going over 2.00m at the Lukashevitch Memorial meeting in Chelyabinsk, Russia, on 9 January and she leads the world this winter.
Before she arrives in Banska Bystrica, Chicherova will also compete at high jump spectaculars in Antwerp, Belgium, and Arnstadt, Germany.
“I am very proud that we will be able to welcome Anna Chicherova and I wouldn't even exclude the fact that she might even be able to break the world indoor record of 2.08m, which is held by Sweden's Kajsa Bergqvist,” said the meeting manager Alfons Juck.
Chicherova set a personal best of 2.07m outdoors last year to go equal fourth on the all-time list for the event and has cleared 2.04m indoors on two occasions. She also won the 2005 European indoor title.
The Banska Bystrica women's meeting record stands at 2.05m and has been held by Croatia's Blanka Vlašić since 2006.
Chicherova will have Italy's current European indoor champion and 2011 Banska Bystrica winner Antonietta Di Martino up against her and Juck said that he expects to add further major names in the coming weeks.
Greece's Kostadinos Baniotis, fourth at the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championships when he cleared a personal best of 2.32m, has been added to the men's competition which already has the United States' 2011 world champion Jesse Williams and Czech star Jaroslav Baba in the field.
