Growing up as a high jumper, I said if I could ever jump 2.40, I’d be pretty satisfied with my career. It’s definitely a barrier for high jumpers.
— Derek Drouin, Canadian track and field athlete
A track and field event, the high jump is where competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practised format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat for landing.
Since ancient times, competitors have introduced increasingly effective techniques to arrive at the current form, and the current universally preferred method is the Fosbury Flop, in which athletes run towards the bar and leap head first with their back to the bar.
The first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century. Early jumpers used either an elaborate straight-on approach or a scissors technique. In later years, the bar was approached diagonally, and the jumper threw first the inside leg and then the other over the bar in a scissoring motion.
Many styles have evolved, including the now little-used scissors, or Eastern, method, in which the jumper clears the bar in a nearly upright position; the Western roll and straddle, with the jumper’s body face-down and parallel to the bar at the height of the jump; and a more recent backward-twisting, diving style known as Fosbury Flop.
This revolutionised technique was initiated by Dick Fosbury of the US when he competed in the Mexican Olympics of October 1968. The lanky Oregonian stunned the sports world with a backwards flop over the high jump bar and won gold, thereby inventing a new jumping style still used today.
Back in the late 60s and early 70s, we did our high jump ala Bruce Lee. Aged 17 in 1971, I started competing in all the three jumping events — long jump; hop-step-and-jump (now known as triple jump) as well as the high jump. In our rural Saratok Secondary School (now known as SMK Saratok), despite only managing a jumping height of 5ft 4in, I still managed to go second but was champion for the triple jump and long jump events for Boys A.
We knew nothing about other techniques or their names but just confined ourselves to ‘Bruce Lee Style’ that perhaps was related to the scissors. We had a good laugh too — as when someone jumped, there were spectators having their legs going up as if they were about to jump too.
In our own varsity meets in the mid-70s, I also took part in all the jumps but never won anything on high jump as a very tall Mahizam was USM’s star in the event — despite his jump being just about 5ft 9in and certainly considered low by the present standards.
I do enjoy the high jumping events recorded in YouTube, including those competed for world championships and the Olympics — especially for the women and readers can make their guesses on my reasons.
Topping the other reason is the fact they are certainly better looking than their male counterparts.
My favourites are Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh who was placed third in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics; the forever smiling Aussie Nicola McDermott — she starts jumping by shouting ‘common’ — who was first runner-up in Tokyo and would write in her notes after every jump and the very beautiful Ella Junila of Finland.
I also like two other jumpers with similar technique (swinging the right hand before negotiating the bar), namely Aussie Eleanor Patterson (Commonwealth champion) and another Ukrainian beauty Yuliya Levchenko.
At the moment, Mahuchikh, 20, is top ranked after her win in the latest tournament, namely the World Athletics Championships Belgrade 22 on March 19. She cleared 2.02m, beating Eleanor Patterson to second in the absence of former world number one Russian Mariya Lasitskene, the Olympic champion.
Thanks to Fosbury, Mahuchikh, who is coached by experienced female maestro Tatyana Stephanova, did clear 2.06m (her personal best or PB) in 2021 at an indoor event.
I have been following women’s high jump for more than a decade but halted for a while when Croatian Blanco Vlasic, now 37, became less active in 2016. A hugely popular figure both on and off the track, Vlasic’s impressive high jump career included a total of 166 clearances over 2.00m or higher, topped by her 2009 PB of 2.08m which ranks her second on the world all-time list behind only Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova with 2.09m (6 ft 10 1/4 in) in 1987.
For the record, the men’s highest jump belongs to Cuban Javier Sotomayor with 2.45m (8 ft 1⁄4 in) created in 1993.
The women leading jumpers have peculiar mannerisms prior to their jumps. Apart from McDermott’s smile and ‘common’ yell, Ukranian Iryna Gerashchenko usually mutters something (probably praying) and Latiskene must look to her left first (at coach?) before jumping. These add interest to their bar quests.
