2009 World Championships in Athletics – Men's high jump

The men's high jump event at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany was held between 19 August and 21 August 2009.

The 2008 Olympic gold and silver medallists, Andrey Silnov and Germaine Mason, did not compete at the Championships and the reigning world champion, Donald Thomas had been in poor form that season. The Russian duo, Yaroslav Rybakov and world leader Ivan Ukhov, were the most favoured athletes. The 2005 world champion Yuriy Krymarenko and Olympic medallist Kyriakos Ioannou had performed sub-par prior to the competition. Andrey Tereshin, Jaroslav Bába and host representative Raúl Spank rounded out the likely medal candidates.[1] In the qualification round, the two past champions (Thomas and Krymarenko) failed to make the qualifying mark of 2.30 m. All the favourites progressed, with Kyriakos Ioannou topping the rankings, while Mickael Hanany and Motswana Kabelo Kgosiemang jumped season's best to make the final.[2]

The final, held on 21 August, was delayed by 90 minutes due to heavy rainfall in Berlin, and this produced much lower results compared to the qualification for a majority of the jumpers. No medalling athlete reached the qualifying mark of 2.30 m that they had two days previously. Ivan Ukhov, who had a season's best of 2.40 m, finished with a best of 2.23 m, and Andra Manson similarly failed to match expectations. Only Rybakov, Ioannou, Spank and Sylwester Bednarek passed the 2.28 m height. Rybakov and Ioannou passed 2.32 m on their first attempts, while the other two athletes took two jumps for the height which were personal bests. These turned out to be the final passes of the competition and Rybakov beat Ioannou to the gold by having one less failed attempt in the competition, while Spank and Bednarek shared the bronze honours.[3]

This was Rybakov's first gold after three silvers in past world championships. Ioannou was Cyprus' only medallist from the championships that year. Joint-third Bednarek was a surprise medallist given that this was his first senior outdoor competition and he had started the season with a best of 2.26 m.[3] The winning result of 2.32 m was the lowest winning result in the history of high jumping finals in the World Championships in Athletics, shared with the finals of 1983 and 2005.

Medalists

Gold Yaroslav Rybakov
 Russia (RUS)
Silver Kyriakos Ioannou
 Cyprus (CYP)
Bronze Sylwester Bednarek
 Poland (POL)
Raúl Spank
 Germany (GER)

Records

World record  Javier Sotomayor (CUB) 2.45 Salamanca, Spain 27 July 1993
Championship record  Javier Sotomayor (CUB) 2.40 Stuttgart, Germany 22 August 1993
World Leading  Andra Manson (USA) 2.35 Austin, United States 4 April 2009
African record  Jacques Freitag (RSA) 2.38 Oudtshoorn, South Africa 5 March 2005
Asian record  Zhu Jianhua (CHN) 2.39 Eberstadt, West Germany 10 June 1984
North American record  Javier Sotomayor (CUB) 2.45 Salamanca, Spain 27 July 1993
South American record  Gilmar Mayo (COL) 2.33 Pereira, Colombia 17 October 1994
European record  Patrik Sjöberg (SWE) 2.42 Stockholm, Sweden 30 June 1987
Oceanian record  Tim Forsyth (AUS) 2.36 Melbourne, Australia 2 March 1997

Qualification standards

A standard B standard
2.31m 2.28m

Schedule

Date Time Round
August 19, 2009 11:10 Qualification
August 21, 2009 19:15 Final

Results

Qualification

Qualification: Qualifying Performance 2.30 (Q) or at least 12 best performers (q) advance to the final.

Rank Group Name Nationality 2.10 2.15 2.20 2.24 2.27 2.30 Result Notes
1 A Kyriakos Ioannou  Cyprus (CYP) - o o xxo o o 2.30 Q, SB
2 B Linus Thörnblad  Sweden (SWE) - o o o o xo 2.30 Q
3 A Kabelo Kgosiemang  Botswana (BOT) - o o o xo xo 2.30 Q, SB
4 B Raúl Spank  Germany (GER) - - o xo xxo xo 2.30 Q
5 B Andra Manson  United States (USA) - o o xxo xxo xo 2.30 Q
6 A Yaroslav Rybakov  Russia (RUS) - - o o o xxo 2.30 Q
6 B Ivan Ukhov  Russia (RUS) - o o o o xxo 2.30 Q
8 B Mickaël Hanany  France (FRA) - o o xxo o xxo 2.30 Q, SB
9 A Giulio Ciotti  Italy (ITA) - o o o o xxx 2.27 q
9 A Martijn Nuyens  Netherlands (NED) o o o o o xxx 2.27 q
9 A Keith Moffatt  United States (USA) - o o o o xxx 2.27 q
12 A Jaroslav Bába  Czech Republic (CZE) - - o xo o xxx 2.27 q
12 B Sylwester Bednarek  Poland (POL) o xo o o o xxx 2.27 q
14 B Jessé de Lima  Brazil (BRA) - o o xxo o xxx 2.27
15 B Donald Thomas  Bahamas (BAH) o o o o xo xxx 2.27
16 A Konstadínos Baniótis  Greece (GRE) - o o o xxx 2.24
17 A Trevor Barry  Bahamas (BAH) - xo o o xxx 2.24
18 A Andrey Tereshin  Russia (RUS) - o o xo xxx 2.24
18 B Yuriy Krymarenko  Ukraine (UKR) o o o xo xxx 2.24
20 B Oskari Frösén  Finland (FIN) - o - xxo xx- x 2.24
21 A Tora Harris  United States (USA) - o xxo xxo x- xx 2.24
22 B Javier Bermejo  Spain (ESP) o o o xx- x 2.20
22 B Naoyuki Daigo  Japan (JPN) - o o xxx 2.20
22 B Viktor Shapoval  Ukraine (UKR) o o o xxx 2.20
25 A Andriy Protsenko  Ukraine (UKR) o xo o xxx 2.20
26 A Grzegorz Sposób  Poland (POL) o o xo xxx 2.20
27 B Peter Horák  Slovakia (SVK) o o xxo xxx 2.20
28 B Artsiom Zaitsau  Belarus (BLR) - o xx 2.15
28 B Majed Aldin Gazal  Syria (SYR) o o xxx 2.15 SB
30 A Dragutin Topić  Serbia (SRB) - xxo xxx 2.15
A Sergey Zasimovich  Kazakhstan (KAZ) DNS

Key: Q = qualification by place in heat, q = qualification by overall place, SB = Seasonal best

Final

Rank Name Nationality 2.18 2.23 2.28 2.32 2.35 Result Notes
1st place, gold medalist(s) Yaroslav Rybakov  Russia (RUS) o o xo o xxx 2.32
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Kyriakos Ioannou  Cyprus (CYP) o o xxo o xxx 2.32 SB
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Sylwester Bednarek  Poland (POL) xo o xo xo xxx 2.32 PB
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Raúl Spank  Germany (GER) o o xxo xo xxx 2.32 PB
5 Jaroslav Bába  Czech Republic (CZE) o o xxx 2.23
5 Mickaël Hanany  France (FRA) o o xxx 2.23
5 Martijn Nuyens  Netherlands (NED) o o xxx 2.23
5 Linus Thörnblad  Sweden (SWE) o o xxx 2.23
9 Andra Manson  United States (USA) xo o xxx 2.23
10 Ivan Ukhov  Russia (RUS) o xo xxx 2.23
11 Giulio Ciotti  Italy (ITA) xo xxo xxx 2.23
11 Keith Moffatt  United States (USA) xo xxo xxx 2.23
13 Kabelo Kgosiemang  Botswana (BOT) xxo xxx 2.18

Key: PB = Personal best, SB = Seasonal best

References

General
Specific
  1. ^ Jalava, Mirko (2009-08-09). Men's High Jump - PREVIEW Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-10-21.
  2. ^ Jalava, Mirko (2009-08-19). Event Report - Men's High Jump - Qualification Archived 2012-06-10 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-10-21.
  3. ^ a b Jalava, Mirko (2009-08-21). Event Report - Men's High Jump - Final Archived 2012-06-13 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2009-10-21.