Report: Women's High Jump qualifying – Moscow 2013

There will be 13 women in Saturday’s final as common sense prevailed on Thursday morning after that number of women cleared 1.92m.

Rather than put the bar up to 1.95m, the automatic qualifying height, and eliminate one woman, the judges decided that adding one more woman to the final was an appropriate measure, and no one disagreed.

Six women were flawless up to and including 1.92m, including three Russians, which will ensure a packed and noisy stadium in two days’ time.

The trio: reigning Olympic champion and defending World champion Anna Chicherova and her compatriots Irina Gordyeva and London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist Svetlana Shkolina.

The others not to bring the bar down in the morning were: Spain’s Ruth Beitia, the reigning European champion indoors and outdoors, Italy’s 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships gold medallist Alessia Trost and Sweden’s Emma Green Tregaro, the World Championships bronze medallist back in 2005 who is now competing at this event for the fifth time.

If those six had few problems securing their place in the final, the same couldn’t be said for the USA’s Olympic silver medallist Brigetta Barrett, who leads the world this year with the 2.04m she cleared to win at the US Championships.

Barrett’s form seemed to totally desert her at her opening height of 1.83m, she later said that she was taking off too close to the bar, and she had two failures at her opening height before nervously going clear.

However, she adjusted her run up and then went over the next two heights of 1.88m and 1.92m at the first time of asking and without any further drama.

Sadly, there was to be no dream return to the big time for Russia’s 2004 Olympic champion Yelena Slesarenko, who returned to competition at the Russian Championships after becoming a mother and surprisingly qualified for these championships.

In only her second competition since giving birth, Slesarenko could do no better 1.83m.

Phil Minshull for the IAAF