Yaroslava Mahuchikh, a 22-year-old Ukrainian athlete, jumped 2.10m at the Paris Diamond League event on Sunday, beating by one centimetre the ancient world record for the high jump, which had been held by Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova since 30 August 1987. Kostadinova was, like Mahuchikh, 22 years old when she achieved this mark a few minutes after the historic duel between Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis in the 100 metres, during the World Championships being held at the Olympic Stadium, in the Foro Italico in Rome.
This sensational mark, as well as others from this meeting, including another world record, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon’s 1500m (3m 49.04s), came 19 days before the Olympics. Mahuchikh took the win with a jump of 2.03m and asked for the bar to be set at 2.07m, a height she cleared in two attempts. She had already dared to challenge a world record that was almost 37 years old and cleared 2.10m on her first attempt.
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