Kristina Gadschiew

Kristina Gadschiew (born 3 July 1984) is a German pole vaulter who has competed at the World Championship-level. She has also reached the podium at the Summer Universiade on two occasions – 2007 and 2009. She has a personal best vault of 4.66 m indoor. Gadschiew represents the sports club LAZ Zweibrücken.

Biography Born in Vassilyevka, Saratov Oblast, Soviet Union, she moved to Germany as a child (as the other pole vaulter Lisa Ryzih). She started competing in pole vault competitions as a teenager and was third in the German cup in athletics in 1999. She failed to build upon this early success and her athletics career stalled. A switch to train with Andrei Tivontchik gave impetus for greater performances and she re-emerged in 2005. She cleared over four metres for the first time and improved her best to 4.35 m in 2006. She began studying chemistry and sports at the Kaiserslautern University of Technology. She became the German university champion in 2008 and was fourth at the German senior championships later that year. A second-place finish at the German Outdoor Championships entitled her to her first World Championships appearance. A few weeks later she made her first appearance on the major European circuit, and set a new best of 4.58 m for third at the London Grand Prix, beaten only by Yelena Isinbayeva and Anna Rogowska.

She scraped through the qualifiers of the 2009 World Championships, but did not perform as well in the pole vault final, taking three attempts to clear 4.40 m and finishing in tenth place. She set a new indoor best of 4.60 m in February the following year and competed at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships, reaching the final and finishing seventh overall. In late June she set an outdoor best of 4.60 m to win in Reims on the Alma Athlé Tour.

Personal bests EventBest (m)VenueDatePole vault (outdoor) 4.60 Reims, France 30 June 2010Pole vault (indoor) 4.66 Potsdam, Germany 18 February 2011 All information taken from IAAF profile.

Competition record