Australian Nicola Olyslagers retains world indoor high jump title

NANJING – Australian Nicola Olyslagers outshone Ukraine’s Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh to retain her world indoor high jump title in Nanjing on March 23.

The last time then reigning Olympic, world and European indoor/outdoor champion Mahuchikh tasted defeat in the event was at the 2024 world indoors in Glasgow, where she surrendered her title to Olyslagers.

The Ukrainian, the only athlete in the field to have cleared 2m or higher this season, never looked comfortable in Nanjing’s Cube, and Olyslagers and Australian teammate Eleanor Patterson took advantage.

Olyslagers, making her season debut in Nanjing, won in a season-best 1.97m. Patterson, the 2022 world champion and world indoor silver medallist, took silver on countback, with Mahuchikh (1.95m) claiming bronze, also on countback.

“I knew that if I wanted to jump as high as I wanted, to be as competitive as I wanted, I needed to do things outside of my normal comfort zone. I needed to do something new, like start a world championships as my first competition of the season, something crazy,” Olyslagers said.

Mahuchikh said she was carrying an injury picked up after winning a third Euro indoor title in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, on March 9.

“I started running and I felt that my ankle is not good, unfortunately. I need more work with my ankle since I feel it’s not stable. I’ll work on it to come back stronger. I’ll be looking forward to the coming outdoor season,” she said.

The second final of the morning session saw American Claire Bryant win the long jump with a personal-best 6.96m on her fifth attempt. Bryant led for the whole competition, which featured none of the Olympic medallists, after opening with 6.76m.

“That was crazy! That was the most fun competition,” she said.

Swiss Annik Kalin took silver with 6.83m and Spain’s Fatima Diame bronze with 6.72m.

In an electrifying night of action on March 22, Armand Duplantis headlined three modern-day greats of track and field to glory.

The Swede was pushed all the way by Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis in a battle royale before bagging a third world indoor pole vault gold with 6.15m.

“We put on a good show for everybody. It’s great to be pushed and I’m happy for Manolo (Karalis). I had to grind for it tonight,” said Duplantis.

“It’s good for me especially and it’s just great competition. It’s just such a higher level than what pole vault’s ever been, so it’s good. You just have to want it.”

Karalis took silver in a national-record 6.05m and American Sam Kendricks, the Paris Olympics silver medallist, matched his season-best 5.90m for bronze.

It was a truly pulsating competition, echoed in the men’s 3,000m won by a hair’s breadth by Norway’s multi-medalled Jakob Ingebrigtsen, incredibly for his first world indoor title, as he pipped Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi at the line by 0.16sec.

On March 23, he won the men’s 1,500m to complete a rare double last achieved by Ethiopian legend Haile Gebreselassie in 1999.

Ingebrigtsen clocked 3min 38.79sec, ahead of Britain’s Neil Gourley (3:39.07) and American Luke Houser (3:39.17).

“My competitors study me, but you have to race many times to be able to respond in all scenarios,” said the 24-year-old.

“I’ve done a lot of racing, but I’m not perfect. It’s all about learning. The more you race, the more you learn, so you can make the right decisions at the right point to increase the possibility of winning. I don’t enjoy the 1,500m warm-up, but the racing is a lot of fun, and that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow – have a lot of fun!”

The third of the stellar trio on show was Grant Holloway, the American claiming an unprecedented third successive 60m hurdles victory in 7.42sec that extended his indoor win streak to 94 races dating back a remarkable 11 years to when he was 16 years old.

“This one was a little bit different. I didn’t have two great rounds and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final. But I knew what I had to do, I knew what I was missing,” he said.

“Epic showdowns on the banks of the Yangtze River” was one of the slogans brandished around Nanjing’s Cube.

And so it proved to be as Duplantis battled Karalis, Ingebrigtsen elbowed it out with Aregawi, and Holloway saw off Wilhem Belocian, the three winners handing out masterclasses in the art of holding your nerve when the pressure ramps up.

There were five other golds up for grabs in the Chinese city.

Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji produced a savage dip to regain the 60m crown she last won in Belgrade in 2022, clocking 7.04sec to see off Italy’s European champion Zaynab Dosso by two-hundredths of a second.

“Every win is always good for the confidence. It shows me that we’re doing a lot of things right because not every year is the same. You can’t just take one recipe and do it every year,” the 32-year-old Swiss racer said.

“You always have to adapt on how you feel, so I’m really happy to see that my coach can feel what I need, and we can do what’s optimal for me.”

Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu won the women’s 3,000m in 8:37.21, American Shelby Houlihan – just two months after returning from a four-year doping ban – edging out Austrian Jessica Hull for silver by two-hundredths.

There was a Cuban one-two in the women’s triple jump, Leyanis Perez Hernandez taking gold with a first-effort 14.93m ahead of Liadagmis Povea and Spain’s Ana Peleteiro-Compaore.

Amber Anning ensured a first British gold in the women’s 400m by edging out American Alexis Holmes by three-hundredths of a second for the win in 50.60sec, Norway’s Henriette Jaeger taking bronze in 50.92.

The US men made up for Holmes’ silver by sweeping the men’s 400m – Christopher Bailey winning in 45.08sec ahead of Brian Faust (45.47, PB) and Jacory Patterson (45.54). AFP