by Stuart Weir
Women’s High Jump
It is easy to think that the high jump is just about a group of people jumping in turn and one who jumps highest wins. And at one level it is but there is so much more in terms of strategy and intrigue – at which height to start and whether to take every bar. In simple terms there were 9 jumpers in Stockholm. Six cleared 1.91 but failed at 1.93, leaving the top three to contest the “medals”.
Olysagers and Mahuchikh came into the competition at 1.91, by which time they had watched – or probably not watched – 25 jumps from those who started at 1.75 or 1.80. It was soon clear that it would come down to a shoot-out or jump-off between those two. It was probably an advantage for Olysagers that she was jumping before Mahuchikh and able to put pressure on, well perhaps.
Then the intrigue came in. Both Olysagers and Mahuchikh cleared 1.91, skipped 1.93 and cleared 1.95. Surprisingly to some Olysagers skipped 1.97 conceding the lead to Mahuchikh. Both cleared 1.99 – Olysagers first and Mahuchikh needing it to stay on level terms.
When Olysagers cleared 2.01 at the first attempt, she was ahead again. Mahuchikh failed twice at 1.99 and opted to keep her third attempt for 2.03. Neither cleared 2.03 meaning that Olysagers won with 2.01.
What impressed me beyond the excellence of the high jumping was the length of time both spent giving interviews afterwards – or in Olysagers case – showing journalists, photographers and TV cameras her famous notebook with all her assessments of her jumps.
The comments of the two protagonists were as follows. Yaroslava: “It was a great atmosphere here with a lot of Ukrainians present and very noisy support which is lovely for me. Today Nicola was better than me but that is ok as we have a great relationship together out there in the field. We all get on well and help one another along. We never know who will win on the day but it is always fun. It is interesting to watch us as it is fun. It is such a cool atmosphere out there when someone jumps well. We all train together so are friends and competitors”.
Nicola: “That felt great jumping out there in those conditions. I was glad to equal my season’s best. I take great inspiration competing against other world class high jumpers. I am managing the travel to and from Australia by allowing more time and it is working”.
The two will not jump against each other again – until Friday in Paris.
A perfect day of appreciating the high jump ended with me sitting at dinner with Nicola Olysagers and Vashti Cunningham. Before you say it, yes I know how privileged I am.
