Blanka Vlasic of Croatia in action during the High Jump final (© Getty Images)
It wasn’t like Croatian Blanka Vlasic’s win in the High Jump was ever in question. Just a look at the participant list was enough - there was no Ariane Friedrich of Germany there.
In Doha the Croatian added a 14th successive win since July 2009 retaining her World indoor title. Vlasic did the same outdoors in Berlin and has now won all four World titles indoors and outdoors from 2007 to 2010.
The 26-year-old won her sixth competition of the season and has cleared two metres in each of them. She also collected her fourth straight World indoor medal, in addition to the two golds she has a silver from 2006 and a bronze from 2004. The competition started quite brightly with all nine competitors clearing 1.91m, but there just wasn't enough in the field to mount a challenge to the Croatian. 1.94m served as a turning point in the competition with Vlasic passing the height and only three athletes clearing with their first two attempts.
Russian Svetlana Shkolina lead the competition after this height with a clear series with no failures and Spanish Ruth Beitia, a two-metre jumper this indoor season and the bronze medalist at the 2006 World Indoor Championships, was tied for the second clearing 1.94m with her second attempt, the same for American Chaunté Lowe, who had been in a little bit of trouble at the qualification. Two more athletes, Swede Emma Green, the bronze medalist at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki and 20-year-old Chinese Zheng Xingjuan cleared the bar with their last attempts. Zheng, who already jumped 1.92m as a 16-year-old in 2005 finally grabbed her first senior national record erasing Jin Ling’s 1.93m which had stood for more than 13 years since 1997.
Vlasic took the lead back at 1.96m which she cleared with her first attempt. Lowe also cleared first time moving to second place with Shkolina in third place after this height, before Beitia in fourth. 1.98m was expectedly the height where the medals were awarded, as only three athletes cleared the bar with Russian Shkolina fading to fourth place with 1.96m and Emma Green and Zheng Xingjuan tied for fifth at 1.94m.
Beitia had now moved into second because of a first time clearance at 1.98m, but 2.00m was too much today for both the Spaniard and Lowe and Vlasic easily added another World title to he resumé. Beitia second and Lowe third with a season’s best of 1.98m. Vlasic, who cleared 2.00m with her first try like all the previous heights she tried today, went on to jump three times at 2.05m, but this was too much for the Croatian today.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
