On night of upsets, Australia’s Eleanor Patterson victorious in women’s high jump final

Australia’s Eleanor Patterson claimed gold in the women’s high jump final on Tuesday night at the 2022 World Track & Field Championships, setting a personal best and Oceania area record in the process.

The 26-year-old Patterson, after recording two misses at 1.98m and one at 2.00m, then made it over the bar at 2.02 without issue. And that made all the difference.

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the 2022 world indoor champion and pre-competition favorite, recorded fewer overall failures during the final, but missed her first attempt at 2.02m. Neither athlete cleared 2.04m.

“It is a difficult situation, we are so strong, and in the final, we will win,” Mahuchikh told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson about what she hopes her silver medal will mean to the people of Ukraine. She also expressed her thanks to fans in Eugene for the electric atmosphere and hospitality.

After failing to make the final at both the 2019 World Championships and last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, 30-year-old Elena Vallortigara of Italy claimed bronze.

Three-time reigning high jump world champion Mariya Lasitskene was absent as a result of World Athletics’ ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes following the invasion of Ukraine. Lasitskene previously competed as an “Authorized Neutral Athlete (ANA),” as a result of World Athletics’ other ongoing ban on Russia due the country’s state-sponsored doping program.

Mahuchikh, the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist who evacuated Ukraine, in March, has been supportive of the World Athletics’ ban.

“Russia is an aggressor country that launched a full-scale invasion of my country,” she told the Associated Press. “Many coaches and athletes have gone to the Army to defend our country; some are in hot spots, and some are imprisoned or