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Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh gave herself the perfect pre-Olympic tonic by setting a new world record in the women’s high jump at the Diamond League meet in Paris on Sunday.
Just three weeks out from the Paris Games, reigning world champion Mahuchikh set a new best of 2.10 metres.
That mark beat by 1cm the previous record set by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova in Rome in 1987, one of track and field’s longest-standing.
Mahuchikh had entered the competition at 1.92m and despite three failures on her way to clearing 2.03, then passed at 2.05m.
One jittery failure at 2.07 was swiftly followed by a successful attempt, before she cleared 2.10m at the first time of asking to rapturous applause from the crowd at the Stade Charlety in southern Paris.
She sprinted arms held aloft in triumph to embrace her coaching team.
Her record-setting feat will see Mahuchikh, who fled the Russian bombardment of her native city of Dnipro in February 2022, return to the French capital as one of the nailed-on stars for the Games.
The 22-year-old claimed world gold in Budapest last year after claiming silver in Eugene, losing to Australian Eleanor Patterson on countback, the same result she achieved in Doha in 2019.
Because of the war, the Ukrainian had to make a six-day car journey to Belgrade in 2022 where she added the world indoor high jump title to those two world silvers and Olympic bronze she had already collected. This season also saw Mahuchikh claim world indoor silver in Glasgow in March.
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