Mariya Kuchina-Lasitskene, Yuliya Levchenko and Alessia Trost are the top names, who will highlight the women’s high jump at the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea, the fourth leg of the 2018 IAAF Diamond League. They will catch their eyes again on 31st May on the legendary runway, where Stefka Kostadinova set the world record with 2.09m at the Rome Olympic Stadium 31 years ago becoming the greatest high jumper in athletics history.
MARIYA – The 25-year-old jumper from Prokhladny in Caucausus (1.80m x60 kg) is the reigning world champion. She has added the surname of her Lithuatian husband Vladas Lasitskas, a television tennis commentator on Eurosport, to her maiden name. She has not lost a race outside Russia for almost three years and has remained unbeaten for 38 consecutive competitions. She has jumped 38 times over the 2 metres barrier. She won two world outdoor titles (2015 and 2017) and two world indoor titles (2014 and 2018), the European Indoor gold medal in 2015 and dominated two editions of the IAAF Diamond League (2014 and 2017). She jumped 2.06m in Lausanne in 2017 climbing to the fifth place in the all-time list. She also set her indoor personal with 2.04m in Volgograd this year before winning the world indoor gold medal in Birmingham. She has already taken part in two editions of the Golden Gala including her win in 2017 with 2.00m. In the youth and junior championsips she was the main rival of Italian jumper Alessia Trost. When she looks at the bar with her icy eye, it means that she is going to take off.
YULIYA – Twenty-year-old Ukrainian jumper Yuliya Levchenko (1.79m x60 kg) won the world silver medal at the World Championships in London 2017, where she cleared the 2.00m barrier for the first time in her career with 2.01m. The blonde-haired jumper won the European Under 23 gold medal and was awarded with European Athletics Rising Star of the year. She is a rising star with a smile, which conquers everyone even outside the athletics track. Yuliya can rely on the support of thousands of followers and fans, who don’t miss a photo shoot on her social account.
ALESSIA – Trost, who turned 25 on 8th March, is the tallest among the three jumpers (1.88m x 69 kg). During the last winter season she won the world indoor bronze medal in Birmingham. She comes from Pordenone, but she has moved to Ancona to train with Gimbo Tamberi and his father and coach Marco. She won many international medals in the youth and junior championships (where she beat Kuchina more times) and won the European Indoor Championships silver medal in 2015 at senior level. She has become the third Italian jumper in history to clear the 2.00m barrier after Sara Simeoni and Antonietta Di Martino. The jumper who competes for the Fiamme Gialle has already competed three times at the Golden Gala and achieved her best result in the past edition, where she finished fourth.
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