Reigning world and European champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh from Ukraine broke the long-standing world high jump record in the Paris Diamond League on Sunday (7) afternoon with a record-breaking 2.10m clearance.
Stefka Kostadinova’s previous mark of 2.09m had stood since the 1987 World Athletics Championships and while many of the all-time greats have tried and failed to improve the record, the 22-year-old Mahuchikh succeeded with a first-time clearance at the Charlety Stadium.
In her first competition since defending her European title in Rome in the very arena where Kostadinova broke the world record in 1987, Mahuchikh cleared a world lead outdoors of 2.03m on her second attempt before soaring over her first lifetime best of the evening at 2.07m.
Historically, Mahuchikh has retired from competitions after going clear at lifetime best heights but the manner in which she cleared 2.07m encouraged her to raise the bar to the rarefied height of 2.10m, going clear on her very first attempt.
Mahuchikh leapt off the bed in celebration and ran into the arms of her long-time coach Tetyana Stepanova who has guided the 22-year-old from winning European and world U18 high jump titles all the way to breaking one of the longest standing and most revered world records on the books.
“I feel fantastic because it was an incredible jump, and I managed to do it in my first attempt. It was really incredible, even more so because I only jumped 2.07m at my second attempt, and it was already my personal best.
“My coach told me that maybe I should stop because of the Olympic Games coming up - of course that is more important - but I felt inside I could do it, and, to be honest, I wanted to try the world record - and I did it at my first attempt,” said Mahuchikh, who will be aiming to improve on her bronze medal from Tokyo 2020 when she returns to the French capital later this month.
Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers, who handed Mahuchikh a surprise defeat at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow earlier this year, finished second with 2.01m while 18-year-old Angelina Topic equalled her lifetime best and Serbian record of 1.98m to finish third.
Tual astonishes with 1:41.61 in a record-breaking 800m
Recently crowned European champion Gabriel Tual from France made a sensational breakthrough in a record-breaking 800m on home soil in Paris.
Tual kept pace with the two early season favourites for the Olympic 800m title this year - Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati and Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi - finishing a very close third in a record-breaking race.
For the first time in history, three athletes broke the 1:42-barrier for 800m in the same race. Sedjati held on for the victory in 1:41.56 just ahead of Wanyonyi in 1:41.58 with Tual closing quickly to finish third in 1:41.61 to move to third, fourth and fifth respectively on the world all-time list.
Among the other superlatives and statistics, Tual’s mark was a lifetime best by more than two seconds, improving on his 1:43.99 from the French Championships in Angers only last week and he broke the national record of 1:42.53 set by Pierre Ambroise Bosse in 2014.
And from a continental standpoint, Tual’s time was the third fastest in history by a European behind Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer who clocked world records of 1:41.24 and 1:41.11 in 1997.
Tual’s time was one of three national records set by European athletes in the 800m. Belgium’s Eliott Crestan ran a massive lifetime best in sixth, improving from 1:44.24 to 1:42.43 to break Ivo Van Damme’s legendary national record of 1:43.86 which was set in 1976.
Andreas Kramer also eclipsed his Swedish record in seventh with 1:43.66, the first sub-1:44 performance from the 2018 European silver medallist.
There were also French records for fellow European champion Alice Finot who finished second in the 3000m steeplechase in 9:05.01 and for European bronze medallist Agathe Guillemot who broke the 4:00-barrier in the 1500m for the first time with 3:58.08 to finish eighth.
In a race which saw Faith Kipyegon eclipse her world record with 3:49.04, Great Britain’s Laura Muir finished a brilliant third in a national record of 3:53.79 with teammate and European silver medallist Georgia Bell fifth in 3:56.54, her first ever sub-4:00 clocking.
Steven Mills for European Athletics