BRUSSELS – Lots of track and field student-athletes used the 26th Summer Universiade in Shenzhen as a preparation for their participation in the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea.
Daegu still has a familiar ring to the FISU Family as it was the host city for the successful 2003 Summer Universiade. And the former FIFAWorld Cup Stadium where the IAAF World Championships took place was also the venue for the Universiade track & field competition as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
A number of Shenzhen Universiade medallists continued to shine on the IAAF podium. The Shenzhen Universiade women’s Javelin Champion Sunette Viljoen (RSA), won the bronze medal in Daegu. The Polish pole vaulters Lukasz Michalski and Mateusz Didenkow, who were 1 and 2 in Shenzhen ended 4th and 7th in Daegu. Both set new Personal Bests in the men’s pole vault competition, i.e. 5.85 and 5.75 respectively.
The 2009 Universiade Champion in the 20km Race Walk, Russian Sergey Bakulin, won the IAAF 50 Km World Championship competition ahead of world record holder Denis Nizhegorodov, RUS. The winning time was 3:41:24 and 3:42:45 for second place. This year’s Universiade bronze medal winner Andrés Chocho from Ecuador came in on 11th place clocking 3:49:32.
Olympic Triple Jump Champion Nelson Evora (POR) who won the Universiade gold in Belgrade (2009) and Shenzhen (2011) had to settle for a 5th place in Daegu with his Season’s Best at 17.35.
Universiade men’s javelin Champion Fatih Avan (TUR) ended 5th with a second round throw of 83.34m. He missed the bronze medal by only 96 cm and was one place ahead of 2011 Universiade Vice-Champion 2011 Roman Avramenko (UKR) who ranked 6th in Daegu with a throw of 82.51m.
C. Pierre, FISU Press Officer
Sunette Viljoen throwing gold in Shenzhen