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| Czech high jumper Jaroslav Baba. |
Czech high jumper Jaroslav Bába clinched his qualification for the European Athletics Championships and Olympic Games when he went over a 2.28m to win at Odlozil Memorial Meeting in Prague on Monday, the fifth of this summer's 12 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings.
It allowed the 2004 Olympic Games silver medallist to breathe a big sigh of relief and he can now continue his quest to become the first male high jumper to complete the elusive hat trick of winning titles at the European Athletics Junior Championships, European Athletics U23 Championships and European Athletics Championships.
'Finally I was successful. I was starting to get nervous and I do not like to make myself so tense,' reflected a relieved Bába in the Czech capital.
'I was running out of time and the deadlines were getting closer and closer, and because Helsinki is important to me as well as London. I knew there were not that many other opportunities left to qualify.
'Physically, I'm in good shape. All my troubles come from the problems with my technique. Even today (Monday), it was not optimal but it is definitely getting better,' added the Czech record holder, who cleared 2.37m indoors and then 2.36m outdoors in 2005.
By his own admission, Bába has been plagued by injuries and technical problems throughout his senior career, after hitting the headlines as a teenager. However, he is still capable of getting everything together on the big occasion.
Not only do his two continental titles and his silver medal in Athens bear testimony to that fact, but he was also the silver medallist at last year's European Athletics Indoor Championships and was fourth at the 2011 World Championships.
In the South Korea city of Daegu, Bába went over 2.32m at the first time of asking - the same height as the Bahamas' bronze medallist Trevor Barry - before failing at 2.35m but he required three attempts to go over the preceding height of 2.29m and that cost him a place on the podium.
Bába also finished fifth at the last European Athletics Championships in Barcelona two years ago but his coach Jan Janku Sr, knows how to get medals at the Championships. Janku's son Tomáš took the silver medal at the 2006 European Athletics Championships, an event Bába sadly had to miss due to injury.