Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh completed the full set of major high jump titles just one month before her 23rd birthday on the fourth day of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Sunday (4) evening.
Mahuchikh enjoyed a clear card all the way through to 2.00m although the competition remained alive after Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers - who defeated Mahuchikh for the world indoor title in Glasgow this March - showed her competitive grit with a third-time clearance at 2.00m.
But Mahuchikh kept the ascendency on countback and her first-time clearance proved crucial in adding the final piece to the jigsaw. The 22-year-old, who won bronze in Tokyo, has now won every major title on offer and she also has ownership of the world record after soaring over 2.10m to break Stefka Kostadinova’s long-standing record by one centimetre at the Charlety Stadium in the south of Paris last month.
“Of course Paris will always be in my heart. I will remember this for all my life. The atmosphere and energy in this stadium is amazing,” said Mahuchikh, the reigning two-time European indoor and outdoor champion.
And a joint bronze medal was awarded to Australia’s Eleanor Patterson and Ukraine’s Iryna Gerashchenko who finished equal third with identical cards at 1.95m. For Gerashchenko, this was a particularly sweet medal after she just missed out on a place on the podium in fourth in Tokyo 2020.
There was also a brace of medals for European throwers in the men’s hammer final which was effectively decided after nine throws when Canada’s world champion Ethan Katzberg launched a sucker-punch on his first attempt with 84.12m, the second longest throw in Olympic history behind the late Sergey Litvinov who threw 84.80m in Seoul 1988.
On an excellent night for Ukrainian athletes, Mykhaylo Kokhan made his podium intentions known with a second round throw of 79.39m to move into silver medal position before being displaced in the third round by the dependable Hungarian Bence Halasz who shaved the 80-metre sector line with 79.94m.
The podium positions did not change in the last three rounds. For Halasz, this was his third global medal having previously won two bronze medals at the World Athletics Championships while Kokhan finally ended his string of near-misses on the global stage having finished fourth, fifth, fifth and seventh in major global finals.
Having dominated the event for more than a decade, the great Polish duo of five-time world champion Pawel Fajdek and reigning Olympic champion Wojciech Nowicki had to give way to the younger generation this evening, finishing fifth (78.80m) and seventh (77.42m) respectively.
Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs put up a staunch defence of his Olympic 100m crown. The sole European to reach the final, Jacobs finished a respectable fifth in the final in 9.85, a season's best and his fastest time since winning the Olympic title in Tokyo 2020 in a European record of 9.80.
Noah Lyles began his assault for three gold medals by winning a classic final in 9.79 by a mere 0.005 from Jamaica's Kishane Thompson.
Surprisingly, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr were drawn in the same 1500m semifinal and neither showed any signs of weakness, coming home first and second in 3:32.38 and 3:32.46 respectively to set up a tantalising clash in the final.
Keely Hodgkinson also looks on course for gold in the 800m, controlling her semifinal in a gun-to-tape 1:56.86, the fastest time across the three semifinals.
And there will be French representation in the final. Nine years after reaching the final at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, three-time European silver medallist Renelle Lamote is back in a global final after qualifying as one of the non-automatic qualifiers from the first semifinal in 1:57.78.
There will be ample continental interest in the semifinals of the men’s 400m with the heats bookended by European victories.
World leader and European record-holder Matthew Hudson-Smith won the first heat in 44.78 while British teammate Charles Dobson looked equally comfortable in winning the final heat in 44.96, easing past double European champion Alexander Doom who was second in 45.01.
Steven Mills for European Athletics