BRATISLAVA June 1st, 2017 (Slovak Athletic Federation) – At the forthcoming 52nd International Athletic Meeting Pravda – Televízia – Slovnaft (P-T-S) there will be on Saturday, 17th June, a premiere of the Memorial of Eva Suranova in the long jump. The only Slovak women who gained medal in the athletics at the Olympics (bronze in Munchen 1972) died last year on 31st December, that is why organisers from the Slovak Athletic Federation have not hesitated and after the agreement with the family of the deceased, the women´s long jump will be this year a memorial to the deceased legend.
The long jump has a long tradition at the P-T-S meeting. Eva Suranova won this competition three times (1967,1972 and 1976), Heike Drechsler at those times with her maiden name Daute jumped the junior world record of 714cm in 1983 and in Slovakia living Galina Cistjak is still holding the record of the meeting, 735cm jumped in 1990.
This year, the start list in the complex x-bionic® sphere in Samorin offers two significant names in this discipline. Daria Klisnova from Russia was the only athlete from her country who competed at the Olympics in Rio (as an independent athlete), because she spends most of the year outside Russia, most often in Florida. 26-year-old blond is a two-time European indoor athletic champion, she has a bronze medal from the European Championships in 2014, she was in the final at the Olympics 2016 and World Championships in 2015. This year, she just missed the medal at the European Indoor Athletic Championships in Belgrade, but jumped very solid 684 cm and started the summer season with fourth place when jumped 670 cm at the Diamond League in Eugene. She jumped her personal best, 705cm, in Ostrava when she won there the European Athletics U23 Championships.
The British Lorraine Ugen, the bronze medallist from the European Indoor Athletic Championships this year, where she performed her personal best with 697cm, and improved the British indoor record. She also won the bronze medal at the 2016 World Indoor Championships. In the Olympic finale last year, she was 11th, but at the 2015 World Championships she was 5th. This summer season she has already performed 678 cm and she was one place higher that Klisinova at the Diamond League in Eugene.
The Slovak number one and multiple national champion, Jana Veldakova, will have harsh rivals in Samorin. There will also be jumping 21-year-old Ukrainian Maryna Bech (in the past, she was a medallist at the European Junior Championships) with her personal best 693 cm and the British Jazmin Sawyers, 8th in Rio 2016 and silver medallist at the European Championships in 2016 in Amsterdam, with her personal best 675 cm.
The organisers of the P-T-S meeting in Samorin announced earlier the participation of hammer throw stars Anita Wlodarczyk and Pawel Fajdek, who lead the world rankings in 2017 with a huge lead.
The 200 metres run will be full of rivals for the 2017 European indoor champion on 60 m, Ján Volko, because Olympic medallist Brendon Rodney from Canada and silver medallist from the 2016 European Athletic Championships Rami Gulijev from Turkey will come to Samorin Of course, on the P – T – S meeting Slovak elite will not miss, participation was promised by Matej Toth, Iveta Putalova, Marcel Lomnicky, it will be his first start in this season for hammer throw recorder Martina Hrasnova.
52nd Athletic Meeting P – T – S will be hold in the sport complex x-bionic® sphere in Samorin on Saturday 17th June 2017, competitions in the main program start at 13:15 with a hammer throw, that counts into the prestigious series IAAF. There is no entrance fee for the spectators.