Men’s high jump final
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
19 October 2000 - South Africa’s Jacques Freitag confirmed his status as the best junior high jumper in the world this year by winning the World Junior championships here in Santiago with a clearance of 2.24m.
Freitag who has a personal best of 2.30 cleared 2.24 comfortably at his first attempt but had three clear failures at 2.26m.
17 year-old Jermaine Mason of Jamaica won an unexpected silver medal. Mason improved his personal best by 6 centimetres and cleared 2.24 - a new national junior record - at his last attempt. He then went close at clearing 2.26 at his second attempt, clipping the bar with his heel.
The bronze medal went to Poland’s Tomasz Smialek who set a new personal best of 2.21 at his last attempt. Smialek had two failures at 2.24, decided to pass on to the subsequent height but could not clear 2.26 with his last-ditch effort.
The African junior record holder, Jacques Freitag is the fourth World Youth champion from last year in Poland to subsequently win a World Junior title, after Mark Lewis Francis (GBR), Veronica Campbell (JAM) and Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS).
