Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh lived up to her pre-Paris Games billing to win the women’s Olympic high jump at the Stade de France on Sunday.
The world champion and world record holder managed a best of 2.00 metres to win on countback from Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers.
Another Australian, Eleanor Patterson, claimed joint bronze with another Ukrainian, Iryna Gerashchenko, both on 1.95m.
Wearing her trademark blue and yellow eyeliner -- the colours of the Ukraine flag -- Mahuchikh was nowhere near her 2.10m world record form of the Paris Diamond League last month.
That mark beat by 1cm the previous record set by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova at the 1987 world championships in Rome, one of track and field’s longest-standing.
But her Paris performance on Sunday was enough for Olympic gold, the sole trophy missing from the high jumper’s impressive medal haul.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine celebrates with her national flag after winning gold alongside silver medallist Nicola Olyslagers of Australia and bronze medallist’s Iryna Gerashchenko of Ukraine and Eleanor Patterson of Australia. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
The 22-year-old, who fled the Russian bombardment of her native city of Dnipro in February 2022, claimed world gold in Budapest last year after taking silver in Eugene, the same result she also achieved in Doha in 2019.
Because of the war, the Ukrainian had to make a six-day car journey to Belgrade in 2022 where she added the world indoor high jump title to those two world silvers and Olympic bronze she had already collected. This season also saw Mahuchikh claim world indoor silver in Glasgow in March.
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