Cyprus pole vault champ dead at 23

NICOSIA (AFP) –

Cypriot pole vaulter Marianna Zachariadi celebrates her silver medal at the XIX Commonwealth Games on October 12, 2010, in New Delhi. Zachariadi, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, died at the age of 23 on Monday after a battle with cancer, doctors said.

Cypriot pole vaulter Marianna Zachariadi, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, died at the age of 23 on Monday after a battle with cancer, doctors said.

Zachariadi, who was born in Greece, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2011 and her condition worsened in the past few of months.

She slipped into a coma last week at Attiko Hospital in Greece, and doctors confirmed she had died on Monday morning.

In October 2010, she lept to silver at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, repeating a feat at the Mediterranean Games in Italy a year earlier.