Posted: May 19, 2006

Athletics: Bergqvist Looking Towards World Record In 2006

By Bob Ramsak
© 2006 TRACK PROFILE Report, all rights reserved

Swede Kajsa Bergqvist, the reigning world champion in the high jump, will be gunning for the world record when she competes at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in Gateshead on June 11.

After raising the global standard indoors to 2.08 earlier this year, the popular Swede now believes that the 19-year-old mark, Bulgarian Stefka Kostdadinova's 2.09m [6-10 1/4] set in 1987, is now within her reach.

“I see no reason why I should not now aim for the world outdoor record," she said. "The Norwich Union British Grand Prix will be one of my first outings of the season, and after jumping 2.03m in this meeting last year, I would love to have a crack at that world record there."

Bergvist, also the reigning European champion, missed the 2004 Olympic Games when she tore her Achilles tendon just a month before the Athens Games, but came back strongly last year, winning each of her 13 competitions. Last February, the 29-year-old cleared 2.08 [6-9 3/4] in Arnstadt, Germany, eclipsing the previous world record of 2.07 [6-9 1/2] set by Germany's Heike Henkel nearly 14 years earlier.

"Things have gone really well for me since I returned from the injury and I don't think my confidence has ever been higher following the world title last year and the indoor world record at the start of the year.”

Before Gateshead, the Swede will top the bill at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., on May 28, where she'll face American Chaunte Howard, the surprise runner-up at last year's World Championships, and at the Bislett Games in Oslo on June 2, the opening leg of the six-meet IAAF Golden League series. In Oslo, Bergqvist will face Olympic and two-time world indoor champion Yelena Slesarenko of Russia, Croatia's Blanka Vlasic, the silver medallist at this year's World Indoor Championships, and Howard as well.

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