Iryna Kovalenko rose to the occasion in splendid fashion to win the women’s high jump title with a gutsy third-time clearance at 1.88 metres to clinch the gold, and then, the pressure off, cleared 1.90 and then 1.92 to set a championship record.
Neither Annett Engel, of Germany, nor Russia’s Svetlana Shkolina, from Russia, could be separated after both failed 1.88, and so their clearance at 1.86 saw them both collect silver medals behind the Ukrainian.
The medals were determined at 1.84m, 3cm beyond the reach of Oldriska Maresova, from the Czech Republic, who had already surpassed her previous best performance when she cleared 1.81 to stay in the competition’s last four.
Kovalenko’s clearance at 1.86 had clear daylight between her back and the bar as she sailed over first-time, putting further pressure of Engel and Shkolina, who had held the advantage of first-time clearance up to that point.
Engel, seemingly on the brink of having accept the bronze after two attempts where she never looked like clearing 1.86, somehow found the technique to do so on her third effort. But Shkolina responded.
Faced with 1.88, Kovalenko suffered a bout of vertigo, and on her first two run-ups could not even get off the ground before being timed out. She also failed her second attempt. But then, the elegant, tall Ukrainian re-discovered her form just when it mattered.
