Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchy became the world high jump champion for the first time in her career, having won gold in Budapest with a score of 2.01 meters.
Maguchih, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze medalist, has twice stopped short of becoming a world champion. In 2019 and 2022, she won silver medals behind Maria Lasitskene and Australian Eleanor Patterson, respectively.
Maguchikh won this “gold” with her lowest result in the finals of the world championships – 2.01 meters. In 2019, she jumped to the “silver” 2.04 meters, in 2022 – 2.02.
This is the first gold of Ukraine at the world championships in athletics in 10 years.
Irina Gerashchenko, another Ukrainian in the final, has only once competed in the finals of the world championship so far. Last year, in the American Eugene, a Ukrainian only on attempts gave way to the Italian Elena Vallortigari a place on the podium.
Two starting marks – 1.85 and 1.90 meters – the Ukrainians passed without errors. Maguchy missed the starting height, after which she coped with the second barrier without any problems. Gerashchenko succeeded in 1.94 meters on the first attempt. But Maguchikh used two jumps to overcome the distance.
Only eight finalists reached the fourth bar – 1.97 meters. On the first attempt, only two favorites overcame her: Maguchyh and Australian Olislagers; the rest of the participants missed the first two attempts.
Five finalists, including Irina Gerashchenko, failed to overcome 1.97. The Ukrainian finished in the finals in fifth place – her second best result at the world championships.
The fight for “gold” unfolded between Maguchy, Olislagers, Patterson and British Morgan Lake. The last two jumpers cleared 1.97 meters on their last attempt to keep their podium chances.
Maguchy jumped 1.99 meters on the first try, just like the current champion Patterson. The second attempt was successful for Olislagers, but Lake postponed the last attempt by 2.01 meters and did not convert it, finishing fourth in the final.
2.01 none of the future medalists jumped over the first attempt. But the second jump was realized by Maguchy, repeating her best result of the season and taking the intermediate first place. Both Australians ended up not jumping 2.01 meters.
