English
Sergey Bubka, a living legend of athletics, will be the guest of honour at the 2011 Belgacom Memorial Van Damme.
The 49-year-old Ukrainian is first vice-president of the IAAF and member of the IOC. In the eighties and nineties of the previous century he dominated his discipline, the pole vault, like no other athlete in the world had done before him.
Bubka improved the world record no fewer than 17 times (both indoor and outdoor). He has been World Champion Outdoor 6 times (in 1983, 87, 91, 93, 95 and 97), World Champion Indoor three times (87, 91 and 95), European Champion Outdoor once (in 1986) and European Champion Indoor once (85). He took Olympic gold in 1988 in the Korean capital Seoul.
In Brussels, where he shares the stadium record (5m95) with the American Jeff Hartwig, Bubka will witness a great pole vault competition, with current Olympic and World champion, the Australian Steven Hooker, the European champion, the Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, and the German Malte Mohr, winner of last year’s event, already certain of taking part.