Jumping Shoes
In order to gain firm traction as they "plant" their take-off foot to jump, high jumpers are permitted to use a special shoe, one with a built-up sole – for comfort and stability – and which contains six or seven spikes in the front and no more than four spikes in the heel. Ukhov is unique in that he uses ordinary sprint spikes when he competes, which lack the added traction in the heel. In a 2010 interview for the Russian sports daily Sovietskiy Sport, he was asked about the lack of heel spikes and said, "Yes, that's true. Before every season I think it's time to move on and use high jumping shoes but I still haven't switched to them. Somehow they do not work for me." Failure to use a "normal" jumping shoe does makes it difficult to jump in wet conditions. When it rained during the Mens High Jump final at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, he finished in tenth place, saying, "When the rain started, I started experimenting with new spikes but in vain." A year later, at the 2010 European Athletics Championships in Barcelona, heavy rains came just before the Mens High Jump final, but Ukhov said he "started with my sprint spikes and kept them on." He finished in second place.
Ukhov's 2011 indoor season included three meets where he won and then attempted to set a world indoor record of 8 feet (2.44m). It has not been reported whether he made the switch to a jumping shoe during the off-season, or, whether he continues to use sprint spikes in 2011.
In an interview for BBC News filmed in Moscow in early spring 2011, Ukhov admitted his difficulty of jumping in wet conditions without heel spikes and acknowledged this could be a liability at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Read more about this topic: Ivan Ukhov
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