Mutaz Barshim and Yaroslava Mahuchikh (© Getty Images)
Men's high jump
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If any moment showed that Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim is ready to win a fourth consecutive world high jump title at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, it came at last month’s Silesia Diamond League meeting. There, after seeing the Italian with whom he shared the last Olympic title, Gianmarco Tamberi, and Germany’s Tobias Potye clear 2.34m at their second attempts – while he had failed – Barshim skipped to 2.36m and went over first time to set a world lead and meeting record.
Neither Tamberi nor Potye, for whom 2.34m was a personal best, could proceed further. Once again, the elastic athlete from Doha was bouncing up and down in glee.
Barshim, 32, has had to compete cautiously in recent years to counteract a severe back problem. Tamberi, 31, also returned from an awful ankle injury to re-establish himself at the top. Both have the talent, and character, to win. But you can’t help thinking Barshim will find the way again.
Tamberi, however, will have the extra incentive of trying to win a first world outdoor gold to add to his indoor version from 2016. Potye is clearly a medal contender, too.
Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (© Getty Images)
Another man who could spoil the party for the joint Tokyo Olympic champions is JuVaughn Harrison of the United States, who stands second in the 2023 top list after winning the London Diamond League meeting on 23 July with 2.35m. It was the third Diamond League victory of the season for the 24-year-old from Alabama - a record that bodes well for his World Championships chances.
A strong challenge will also be posed by Korea's Woo Sanghyeok, fourth in Tokyo and who last year won world indoor gold and world outdoor silver.
Look out New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games champion Hamish Kerr, who set an Oceanian record of 2.34m indoors this year, plus Australia’s Joel Baden and Ukraine’s world bronze medallist Andriy Protsenko.
Women's high jump
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Yaroslava Mahuchikh fled the Russian bombardment of her native city of Dnipro last year and, after a six-day car journey, arrived in Belgrade where she added the world indoor high jump title to the world outdoor silver and Olympic bronze she had already collected.
At last year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon she missed out on gold on countback. Will Budapest be where this huge talent earns the outdoor global gold she deserves?
Her form this year has maintained its high level - indoors, she headed the world list with 2.02m and won the European title; outdoors she stands second in the top list with a best of 2.01m achieved at the Rabat Diamond League meeting.
But the 21-year-old faces formidable opposition from two athletes who have electrified the event in Australia over the past two years - Eleanor Patterson, who claimed the world title in Oregon after both she and her Ukrainian rival cleared 2.02m, and Nicola Olyslagers, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics as she set the Oceanian record that Patterson later equalled.
Ealeanor Patterson in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
On 29 June in Lausanne’s Place Centrale Olyslagers, 26, matched that record again to defeat a field including Mahuchikh, and at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on 21 July the Australian won the honours as she cleared 1.99m, with Mahuchikh, her Ukraine teammate Iryna Gerashchenko, Patterson and Serbia’s Angelina Topic all clearing 1.96m.
Patterson, 27, who took world indoor silver behind Mahuchikh last year, is currently equal ninth on the season top list thanks to that performance. Gerashchenko stands third in the world list with the 2.00m she cleared in Lausanne.
Meanwhile, Serbia will be expecting more from their 18-year-old phenomenon Angelina Topic - whose mother Biljana is the Serbian women’s triple jump record-holder who was fourth in the 2009 World Championships, and whose father Dragutin is the Serbian high jump record-holder and winner of the 1990 European title.
In 2022, aged 16, Topic set a Serbian record of 1.96m before going on to take the European U18 title in Jerusalem with 1.92m and world U20 bronze with 1.93m. She concluded her breakthrough season by earning bronze at the European Championships in Munich, again with an effort of 1.93m, becoming the youngest medallist of that edition of the competition.
In January this year she improved her national record to 1.94m. Can this startling talent reach another major podium in the Hungarian capital?
Also moving into medal contender mode is Britain’s former heptathlete Morgan Lake, who has cleared 1.97m outdoors and 1.99m indoors this season.
A third Ukrainian is also in the mix - 2017 world silver medallist Yuliia Levchenko, who has jumped 1.98m this season, as has Germany’s Christina Honsel.
Jamaica’s hopes will be carried by Lamara Distin, who has an indoor height of 1.97m to her credit this year.
Mike Rowbottom for World Athletics
