I did my best - Hestrie

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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.

Cloete, the world high jump champion, carrying the weight of the nation on her narrow shoulders, faltered at 2.04m.

Still, ASA president Leonard Chuene was grinning from ear to ear when he presented the medals to the high jumpers.

"I did my best," said Cloete afterwards.

:"I'm actually very happy about my silver."

Slesarenko paid tribute to Cloete: "The competition was very hard," she said after her Olympic record jump.

"Hestrie helped me jump better by jumping so well."

Cloete looked tense from the start, but she was faultless in technique, speed and strength all the way through from 1.85m to 2.02m.

Her Africa record is 2.06m and she came to Athens with a season's best 2.04m at Zurich four weeks ago and that is the height where the pressure really weighed heavily on her.

She failed twice, brushing the bar with her back the first time, then no-jumped the second.

Then she put the bar up to 2.06m for her final attempt, but it was never really on as Slesarenko continued with her relaxed and effortless style to an Olympic record 2.06m.

The Russian went for the world record at 2.09m, but with gold sealed, her adrenaline had dropped and she did not make it.

Ukranian Viktoriya Styopina erred at 1.96m, 1.99 and sailed over her first jump at 2.02m to trail Cloete for the bronze.