Bondarenko, Ukhov, Barshim and Drouin All Out to Hit the Heights in Rome

Published by the IAAF on June 4, 2014

World records are hard to come by in athletics but such has been the depth of the men’s high jump in the past two years that nobody would be surprised if Bohdan Bondarenko or Ivan Ukhov – or even perhaps Mutaz Essa Barshim or Derek Drouin – scaled 2.46m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Rome on Thursday (5).

Bondarenko, the world champion, and Olympic champion Ukhov have already respectively jumped 2.40m and 2.41m outdoors this season while world indoor champion Barshim and Drouin, who has also gone over 2.40m this year, have also been in impressive form.

Add into the equation Erik Kynard, who was close at a US record of 2.41m at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of the year in Doha last month, as well as Russia’s Aleksey Dmitrik and the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome’s famous and historic Olympic Stadium is one of the most outstanding men’s high jump fields ever seen outside of a major championship.

The meeting record in Rome is far from shabby, standing at 2.38m to Bondarenko’s compatriot Andrey Sokolovskiy from 2005, but definitely looks in danger.

On the track, one of the most popular events in the Italian capital has been always been the men’s 1500m.

It was at this meeting that Hicham El Guerrouj set the current world record of 3:26.00 back in 1998 and this year’s race brings together Kenya’s 2013 world champion Asbel Kiprop and Djibouti’s 2014 world indoor champion Ayanleh Souleiman, the latter having a spectacular win over the mile in 3:47.32 on Saturday.