A great return to competitive action for a Croatian champion in Beijing.
Blanka Vlašić has won the silver medal in the high jump at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing. That is the fourth medal for the athlete from Split at world championships, after the gold medals in Osaka 2007 and Berlin 2009, and silver in Daegu 2011. This was the first time this year that she has cleared the bar over two meters, reports Jutarnji List on August 29, 2015.
In the finals, Vlašić jumped 2.01 metres, the same height as two Russians, Maria Kuchina, who won the gold, and Anna Chicherova who won the bronze.
Vlašić came to Beijing with the season’s best result of 1.97 metres, but in the final she has proven that the decision to skip “Diamond League” meetings in Lausanne and Monte Carlo in order to prepare for Beijing was the right one. Vlašić cleared the heights of 1.88 m, 1.95 m, 1.97 m, 1.99 m and 2.01 m in the first attempt. She missed the gold at a height of 1.92 m, which she managed to pass only in the second attempt.
Vlašić has repeated the result which she achieved at the same stadium during the Olympic Games seven years ago. At that time, she was the favourite for the title, but her jump over 2.05 m was enough just for silver medal, behind Belgian Hellebaut.
Ana Šimić also took part in the final of the high jump. She jumped over 1.88 m and shared the ninth place. Šimić managed to jump over the initial height in the first attempt, but then had three unsuccessful attempts at 1.92 metres.
