|
Hestrie sunk by Russian jumper
Athens - Yelena Slesarenko of Russia has blown away South Africa's Hestrie Cloete to win the women's high jump title.
Cloete won silver with a jump of 2.02m and Viktoriya Styopina of Ukraine won bronze.
Slesarenko cleared an Olympic record height of 2.06 metres to take the title.
Slesarenko, whose biggest success prior to this season was third in the 2003 World Student Games, was flawless until the bar was put up to world record of 2.10m and she had three fouls.
Ukraine's Viktoria Styopina cleared the same height as Cloete, the reigning world champion, but was placed third as she had failures earlier in the competition.
However, Styopina was delighted with her bronze despite just missing out on going one step further up the podium, as she added two centimetres to her previous best.
American high jumper Amy Acuff, who is the cover girl on the current US edition of Playboy, showed that she is more than a pretty face by placing fourth with 1.99m.
Acuff gambled everything by skipping 2.02m but couldn't clear what would have been a US record of 2.04m.
|
