Career
He"s a three-time world championships medalist (Osaka 2007, Valencia 2008 & Berlin 2009), the only medalist for Cyprus since the creation of the Championships in 1983. He"s also the Cypriot record holder, both outdoors (2,35 m) and indoor (2,32 m). Ioannou took the gold medal at 2005 and 2009 Mediterranean Games.
He became the first World Championships medalist from Cyprus.
He also took the bronze medal at the 2008 World Indoor Championships and finished 4th two years later at the same competition in Doha. His best jump, outdoors in 2010, came at Lausanne on July 8, when he took third place with a jump of 2.30.
Doha, 6 May: Ioannou began his outdoor season at the first Diamond League meet in Doha, Qatar, on Friday 6 May. He and American Jesse Williams set a new Meet Record of 2.33 (7" 8") when each cleared on their third attempts.
Injured, he didn"t come in the qualifying rounds at the World Championships in Daegu where he was one the favourite for a medal.
In 2012, still injured, he arrived to qualifying to the Olympic final in London where he finished 12th with 2.20 m. The following year, he didn"t compete. Derek Drouin of Canada takes gold (231 m).
In March 2015, Ioannou makes the final of the European Indoor Athletics Championships but didn"t arrived to make any jump due to an injury.
In June, he makes the olympic standards by clearing 2.29 m. In February 2016, for his first competition of the year, the Cypriot equals his own indoor national record made in 2008 (and equaled by Dimitrios Chondrokoukis in 2015) by clearing 2.32 m in Hustopeče on his third try.