2009 - End of Year Reviews – JUMPS
World Leader Dwight Phillips of the United States in flight in the men's Long Jump final at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin (Getty Images)
MEN -
High Jump
2009 was year No. 1 post-Stefan Holm as the Swedish jumper had retired after a decade as one of the major players in just about every international championship final. A jumper that really experienced that firsthand was Russian Yaroslav Rybakov who met Holm in 15 championship finals with the Swede getting the upper hand on nine of those occasions. No less than four times it was only Holm that separated Rybakov from the gold medal.
In six previous starts in global outdoor championships Rybakov had collected three silver medals, one bronze, one 6th and one 9th place so just like Sanya Richards in the women's 400m the Berlin gold medal was something even their toughest opponents must see as hard earned and well deserved. An extraordinary consistency (Rybakov cleared at least 2.30m in all his 13 competitions indoors and outdoors in 2009) was finally rewarded also in the form of a gold medal.
It probably wasn't a coincidence that the triumph came in a championship final that was exceptionally demanding due to a torrential downpour that wrecked havoc with the warm-up and other preparations and caused such a long delay of the start that it probably was close to being postponed to the next day. Combining that with a truly brutal (even in ideal conditions) chart of heights (2.18m – 2.23m – 2.28m – 2.32m – 2.35m) almost killed the whole competition.