Track Beauty of the Week: Denise Groot

Denise Groot is this week's Track Beauty!

Photo from Erik van Leeuwen

Groot is a pole vaulter from the Netherlands. Coached by George Friant and 2005 World Champion Rens Blom, Denise has been a consistent 4.00m vaulter since 2007.[1] Groot had a sterling career in age-group competition. While still only a youth athlete, Denise won a silver medal in the Dutch National Championships in 2007, clearing a height of 3.61m.[2] She followed this up with another silver medal, soaring over 3.90m in the European Youth Olympic Festival the same year.[3]

She has improved consistently in the successive years. In 2010, Groot set a new personal best of 4.35m - only five centimeters from the Monique de Wilt's Dutch national record.[4] To date, she has won a total of two Dutch outdoor titles on top of single national indoor crown. The Dutch pole vaulter placed seventh at the 2011 edition of the European U23 Championships, where she had a best mark of 4.20m. [5]

The year 2010 should have been Groot's breakout season, having qualified for the European Championships in Barcelona. However, the prodigious young talent fell short of expectations. She could only better 4.05m, thirty centimeters from the lifetime best she set earlier that year.[6]

References

1. "Denise Groot." http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Groot. Retrieved 2-6-2013.
2. Ibid. 
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.

Cathrine Larsåsen in "God Morgen Norge"

Our favorite pole vaulter Cathrine Larsåsen appears on the show, "God Morgen Norge."

Read more about Cathrine: "Track Beauty of the Week - Cathrine Larsåsen"

Track Beauty of the Week: Tatiana Grigorieva Татьяна Григорьев

Tatiana Grigorieva Татьяна Григорьев is this week's Track Beauty!

As a 15-year old kid back in 2000, one of the very first athletics articles I've read was about the glamor couple of Grigorieva and Viktor Chistiakov Виктор Чистяков. Grigorieva was one of the most stunning female athletes ever to grace the sport. Hence, it is about time that she gets some air time in Track Beauty of the Week. More importantly, the Russian-born Australian was an early pole vault pioneer.

Prior to making the big shift to vaulting, Grigorieva was a talented intermediate hurdler [1]. She took up pole vaulting when the couple migrated to Australia in 1997. [2] In light of her hurdling background and natural athleticism, her improvement in the relatively new discipline took dramatic turns in her first few years. From clearing 3.90m in 1997, Grigorieva attained a new personal best of 4.50m in 1999, two years after taking up vaulting. [3]

Grigorieva won the silver medal for her adopted country at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, the first time the event was held for female athletes. Tatiana soared over 4.55m to clinch silver behind American Stacey Dragila (4.60m). In a pole vault career spanning almost 10 years, Tatiana had amassed two Australian titles (1999 and 2001), a Commonwealth Games silver (2006), and a Commonwealth Games title (2002). [4] 

References:

1. "Tatiana Grigorieva." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatiana_Grigorieva. Retrieved 10-3-2012.
2. Ibid. 
3. "Iaaf.org - Athletes - Tatiana Grigorieva." http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/biographies/letter=0/athcode=136035/index.html. Retrieved 10-3-2012.
4. "Tatiana Grigorieva."

Holly Bleasdale vs. Yelena Isinbayeva

Pole vault world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva (Елена Исинбаева) always makes her first jump when everyone else had made theirs. The Russian usually isolates herself from the other competitors, opting to cover her face with a towel and nap. British Olympic hopeful Holly Bleasdale was not amused. She called Isinbayeva "disrespectful" and likened her to a "tramp."

Read Tom Battaglia's column on Bleasdale's comments 

Holly Bleasdale at the Palais des Sports d'Orléans. (Photo from Defeder)

Track athletes nowadays feature non of the banter and trash talk prevalent in other sports. Although Bleasdale's words could somewhat help in drumming up interest in the sport, it would have been better if she had been a little more respectful of Isinbayeva.

Yelena Isinbayeva at the Doha World Indoors. (Photo from Erik van Leeuwen)

The sight of tens of thousands of British spectators cheering for a Bleasdale victory would be a sight to behold. I would love to see Bleasdale on top of the Olympic podium, but I'll have to root for Isinbayeva on this one. Despite Yelena's tag as the most dominant female vaulter in history, she has not been in top form of late, showing chinks in her armor the past few years.

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Pole Vault"

After everything that Yelena has been through it would seem just for the Russian to strike gold one last time.

Angelica Bengtsson: Pole Vault's Rising Star

At just 19 years old, Angelica Bengtsson has won all the major age-group single titles.

The World Youth Champion from 2009, Bengtsson had topped the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore two years ago. Despite being just 17-years old, she also won gold at the World Junior Championships in Moncton the same year - a title which she successfully defended in Barcelona a few days back. Angelica is also the reigning European Junior Champion.

She has a personal best of 4.58m outdoors and 4.63m indoors. Indeed, Bengtsson is the future of pole vaulting. 

Track Beauty of the Week: Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou Νικολέτα Κυριακοπούλου (Nikolia Kyriakopou)

Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou Νικολέτα Κυριακοπούλου is this week's track beauty!

Kyriakopoulou is the Greek pole vault record holder at 4.71m. She set her national mark at the London Grand Prix last year. Prior to her breakout 2011 season, the pole vaulter only had a personal best of 4.55m. In 2011, she qualified for the finals of the European Indoor Championships and the World Championships.

Nikoleta preparing to start her run-up. (Photo from Protein-world.com)

 She placed 9th (4.35m) at the European Indoors, a major improvement from her performance at the European outdoor champs in 2010, where she failed to advance from the qualifying stages.

 In Daegu last August, Kyriakopoulou exited the competition with a best clearance of 4.65m, six centimeters off the Greek national record she set early in the month.

The Greek had a respectable junior career, placing sixth (4.00m) in the pole vault final at the 2004 World Junior Championships in Grosseto.

Nikoleta has shown the world last year that she is capable of the big jumps. She is relatively young at 26-years of age. Kyriakopoulou might not make an immediate impact at the London Olympics, but she is defnitely amongst the elite European female vaulters this year. To date, her 4.50m SB outdoors is the sixth-best by a European athlete. With the European Championships weeks away, Nikoleta looks all set for a fruitful campaign.

Sources:

Wikipedia

IAAF