JUMPERS AIMING HIGH IN OSLO

Reigning Olympic and World Champion Derek Drouin of Canada, who has been also training for the decathlon, will be looking to open his Diamond League account for 2017 in Oslo.

He said,  “I was happy with my short indoor season.  I then focused on decathlon until a couple of weeks ago so tomorrow will be a good test of where I am.  I have a handful of high jump competitions between now and London.”

Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar with a world lead jump of 2.37m in Opole in Poland leads the Diamond League Road to the Final with 16 Points.

He said, “I have had four good competitions this season already after solid training since April.  I am very happy with my jumps so far.  I am in good shape and looking forward to attacking the Stadium record.  I  really hope this good weather stays for tomorrow.”

The super consistent Bohdan Bondarenko of Ukraine opens his 2017 season in Oslo.   

He said, “I had major operation after Rio so needed to recover during the winter.  After a long break I will need to look at my technique tomorrow and go from there.”

On their prospects for Thursday, Barshim said, “This is World Championship year so every meeting is important to see where I am at and what I need to work on going forward.  Technique is really important to me as it can add value to my training if I know what to work on afterwards.”

Drouin added, “It is June now so we need to see where we are and get into top form for the World Championships.  I can only focus on things in my control so I do not worry about the weather. I like to look at what I’ve worked on.”

Bondarenko commented, “Tomorrow is my first competition of the year so I will start at 2.20m and see what I can do.”

As well as the three Olympic medalists Briton Robbie Grabarz and China’s Guowei Zhang will be hoping to continue their good early season form with both having jumped 2.31m already this season.  Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko could also threaten with a 2.40m personal best.