EC2012 Triple Jump: Olha Saladukha (Olha Saladuha Ольга Саладуха) takes gold

I love watching the triple jump because of its highly technical nature. The way the athletes hop, skip, and step to amazing distances is a graceful exercise that evokes wonder for this athletics aficionado. 

However, the event has not been given the same attention as the more popular disciplines like the men's 100m dash. I got thoroughly pissed off while watching the Adidas Grand Prix, a Diamond League meeting, last month. The directors of the telecast opted to air round-after-round of a pedestrian long jump competition over the women's triple jump competition!

Thankfully, the same mistakes were not repeated during Eurosport's broadcast of the 2012 European Championships in Helsinki. Ukrainian Olga Saladukha (Olga Saladuha Ольга Саладуха) went tantalizingly close to the 15 meter barrier, as she leaped to 14.99m to outclass the rest of the field. Patricia Momona (14.52m) and Yana Borodina (14.56m) came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Simona La Mantia (14.52m), Dana Velďáková (14.24m), and, Niki Paneta Νίκη Πανέτα (14.23m) comprised the subsequent places.

The 2011 European U23 Champion, Voula Papachristou (Paraskevi Papachristou Παρασκευή Παπαχρήστου) finished in a disappointing 11th place (13.89m).

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Triple Jump"

I am particularly excited about the upcoming slug fest in the women's triple jump in London. An in-form Saladukha will be hard to beat. But with the likes of 2010 World Indoor Champion Olga Rypakova Ольга Рыпакова, two-time World Champion Yargelis Savigne, the South American Champion Caterine Ibargüen, and the inspired hometown bet Yamilé Aldama in the fore, the competition has the makings of classic.

Track Beauty of the Week: Olga Rypakova Ольга Сергеевна Рыпакова

Olga Rypakova Ольга Сергеевна Рыпакова is this week's Track Beauty!

The Kazakh triple jumper is one of the best in her event. Rypakova has jumped 15.25m outdoors and 15.14m indoors, both Asian records. She also has a world-class personal best in the long jump at 6.85m. Olga is the 7th best triple jumper all-time. 

Photo from Erik van Leeuwen

Aside from the triple jump, the Kazakh has had respectable performances in the long jump and the heptathlon. In fact, she started out as a long jumper, making her international debut at the 2000 World Junior Championships in Chile. As a youth heptathlete, Rypakova missed the podium at the World Youth Championships in Debrecen back in 2001.A year later at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, the then 18-year old Rypakova snared a silver medal in the heptathlon.

Learn more about Rypakova

The Kazakh had won Asian Games titles in the triple jump and heptathlon and an Asian Games silver and bronze in the long jump, demonstrating her dominance in continental competition.

She came into prominence at the 2010 World Indoor Championships in Doha, outclassing Cuba's Yargelis Savigne in the final. Rypakova's two best jumps of 15.14m and 14.93m were enough to put the Cuban out of contention. With her victory in Doha, Rypakova climbed up to third place in the World indoor all-time list.

Read: "London Olympics Preview - The Triple Jump"

Since her breakout 2010 season, Olga has yet to go beyond 15 meters. In the runup to the London Olympics, Olga (14.73m SB) is trailing world leader Olha Saladukha Ольга Саладуха (14.99m SB), Cathrine Ibarguen (14.95A SB), and Kseniya Dziatsuk (14.76m SB) in terms of season's bests. Nevertheless, her strong showing at the Daegu World Championships (2nd place) and the Istanbul World Indoor Championships (2nd) puts her in strong contention for Olympic gold.

Additional Link:
Focus on Athletes - Olga Rypakova

Sources:

Olga's IAAF profile

Wikipedia