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Cool Hestrie flies into final
Athens - South Africa's reigning world champion Hestrie Cloete produced a flawless performance on Thursday night to easily qualify for Saturday's Olympic Games women's high jump final.
Cloete is bidding to become the first South African woman to win an Olympic athletics gold medal since 1952.
She was one of just three women to clear every height up to and including the automatic qualifying height of 1.95m without a failure.
The Ukrainian pair of Iryna Mykhalchenko and Viktoriya Styopina matched Cloete's feat.
Among the nine women who cleared 1.95m was Croatia's Blanka Vlasic, who was hospitalised on Saturday with a pneumonia-like virus.
Russia's Yelena Yelesina, the Sydney Olympic champion, did not defend her title.
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