Olympic champion Stefan Holm maintained his unbroken win streak this afternoon as he celebrated his 22nd straight victory at the 2nd IAAF World Athletics Final by setting a new competition record of 2.33 metres.
The diminutive (by high jump standards – he is just 1.81 metres tall) Swede cleared all heights to 2.33, with only Russia’s Yaroslave Rybakov and Canadian Mark Boswell looking threatening as they cleared 2.3O before failing at 2.33.
Basking in the applause of the crowd in the Louis II stadium, Holm treated every jump like a winning one, clinching his fists in a victory salute after each clearance.
With the competition settled, Holm decided on a last piece of showmanship: attempting 2.40. This proved, however, to be a bar too far, even though his final attempt at the height was credibly close.
The competition ended with Rybakov second on countback from Boswell.
We shall see next season whether Holm is joined in competition by his friend and compatriot Christian Olsson, who said after his win yesterday in the Triple Jump that he might like to try a return to the High Jump where Olsson has a personal best of 2.24 metres and a considerable height advantage!
Meanwhile Holm expressed satisfaction with his performance: "I'm satisfied with my performance today. You never know at this time of year what is still left.
"I took part in 22 competitions this season and I won all of them. An there is still the Olympic gold.
"But I am still hunting 2.40M and I still do not have the national record yet."
SWJ
