Syrine Balti-Ebondo

Who is Syrine Balti-Ebondo?

Syrine Balti-Ebondo is a Tunisian track and field athlete who competes in the pole vault. She is one of Africa's top pole vaulters and is a five-time African champion. Her personal best of 4.21 metres, set in 2006, is the Tunisian record for the event.

Born in Tunis, she won her first international medal at the age of fifteen, taking the pole vault title at the 1999 African Junior Athletics Championships. She became the first women's pole vault champion at the 1999 Pan Arab Games, following its introduction into the programme. Balti cleared four metres for the first time in 2000 and went on claim the gold medal at the 2000 African Championships in Athletics. From 2001 onwards she based her training in Toulouse in France. That year she achieved an African junior indoor record of 4.10 metres.

She was ninth at the 2001 Francophone Games and sixth at the 2001 Mediterranean Games. In 2002 she came ninth at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Athletics then defended her title at the African Championships. A personal best of 4.10 metres at the 2002 IAAF World Cup was also an African junior record mark. She vaulted 4.20 metres indoors in 2003 and matched that height outdoors in 2004. A third straight African championship title came that year, and she also defended her crown at the 2004 Pan Arab Games.