Bondarenko To Take on Barshim in Shanghai

Published by IAAF on May 13, 2015

Bogdan Bondarenko will renew his high jump rivalry with Mutaz Essa Barshim in Shanghai on Sunday (17), the second stop on this year’s IAAF Diamond League calendar.

The world and European champion is a late addition to the high jump field which is headed by Barshim, the high-flying Qatari whose record-breaking battles with Bondarenko thrilled fans throughout the 2014 season when the pair vied for supremacy over the bar, pushing each other to new heights each time they met.

While the Ukrainian came out four-three up in head-to-head contests, it was Barshim who clinched the Diamond Race trophy and US$40,000 winner-takes-all cheque when he cleared 2.43m at the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels at the beginning of September.

It was the third Asian record of the summer to fall to the 23-year-old world indoor champion, making him the second-best jumper of all time after Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor, whose world record of 2.45m is increasingly under threat.