IAAF / VTB Bank Continental Cup Split, Croatia

The best worlds high jumper Blanka Vlašić will traditionally start on Friday, May 14th the new jumping season at the outdoors championship in Doha. The capital of Qatar is the host of the first in a series of fourteen Diamond League Meetings, a new series of competitions that will replace the very successful Golden League. The athlete from Split will be again accompanied by her coach Bojan Marinović, with whom we spoke about the coming up season and the challenges ahead of the two times world champion

- The start in Doha has become a tradition , with the only difference that this is no longer a Grand Prix meeting but a Diamond League one. I hope Blanka will continue her great series, three consecutive victories and the title of the World Indoor Champion she won two months ago. All this indicates how much she likes to compete in Doha. It seems that she jumps great in the hot weather there, the jumping surface suits her well and the atmosphere is excellent – so Blanka always jumped great heights there. The most important for us is that we went through our training schedule without any injuries or diseases, while it is very hard to say when Blanka will get into her top form. Everything needs to set in place, we have loads of experience so there is no unknown factors – emphasizes Bojan.

 

After Doha, Blanka returns to Europe, she should jump on May 27th in Ostrava and then follow Oslo, Rome and several meetings before she attends the most important meeting for her this season, the European Championship in Barcelona from July 27th to August 01st.

- That championship is our main goal for this season. So far Blanka never won any medal on the European championships – indoor or outdoor. For this reason she is already very motivated to achieve a good result in Barcelona. But until then she must go through all the other meetings and competitions, stay healthy and keep up her good form. If all that coincides, we don't need to make any big announcements for Barcelona – added Marinović.

 

Thanks to Blanka, high jump has become one of the more prestigious disciplines in modern athletics, her over 60 jumps above 2 meters and 11 above 205 cm are evidence of continuous and high quality work, that resulted in Blanka holding position of one of the best world's high jumpers for 10 years. The coming up season places again challenges ahead of her and the fight with the bar and against well known competitors.

- Speaking of competitors, I think that there are no unknown elements. Maybe Tia Hellebaut might surprise us, after the announced her return, even we still don't know how well prepared she is, but Tia is always capable to surprise. Everything else is known, Arianne Friedrich then Svetlana Shkolina and the others.

 

After the European Championship in Barcelona the finish of this year’s season will culminate in the first IAAF/VTB Bank Continental Cup in Split, on September 04th and 05th.

- From experience I know that the last week will be a very tough one, on August 27th we have the Diamond League in Brussels, on September 01st the Meeting in Zagreb and from there we will travel straight to Split. This will surely all be full of emotions. Blanka jumped last year in Zagreb her career's second best result (208 cm), she feels well there and always has good jumps. And then, the finish of the busy season in Split . It will be very hard to keep the strength all the way to the end – said Marinović.

There is no doubt that the Continental Cup will be a special competition for Blanka, the fans of her home town only had a chance to see her during the annual indoor high jump meeting in the Gripe and Spaladium Arena halls, but in September, during the Continental Cup, the atmosphere in the Poljud stadium will be completely different.

- I believe that Blanka has sufficient experience on how to preserve her strength reserves all the way to the finish of the season and that she will have a very good jump in Split. The Continental Cup is a much more important competition than the other meetings in the season, it will be internationally broadcasted and attended by the best athletes of the world. Hosting this event is a great honor for the city of Split and the athletic sport in Croatia and I hope that we will all benefit from the Cup. Not only in popularization of the athletic sport, but also in improvements to the local infrastructure. For instance, Blanka is leading high jumper for some 10 years now and many times we were told that a proper athletic sports hall will be constructed. Maybe the Cup gives the chance for this to be done and realized. This competition means a lot to us, after 20 years all athletes will finally get better conditions for their work – said the coach of the best Croatian athlete ever.

 

Marinović doesn't doubt that the best world’s athletes will compete in September, at the Continental Cup in Split, because this is the only global outdoor event in this season.

- The Cup will surely be a much greater event than we can currently imagine ! All the best ones will come to Split, this is the most important event for many athletes in this entire year, because they will have the chance to compete with athletes outside their own continents. Of course, the money prizes offered by the IAAF should not be neglected either. For Split and Croatia the importance of the Cup lies in the fact that our city and country will get a significant international promotion – concluded Bojan Marinović.