From Walt Murphy. Shared with permission. Walt produces an info-rich daily ”This Day in T&F” newsletter. Contact him at waltmurphy44@gmail.com if you’d like to join his distribution list.
2014—Fans at the 10th annual adidas Grand Prix, held in Icahn Stadium on New York’s Randall’s Island, were treated to the greatest high jump competition in history, with Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim both clearing 7-11¼ (2.42m), Bondarenko getting the win on fewer misses.
Both men came into the meet with bests of 7-10¾ (2.41m) and each had won a World title, Bondarenko outdoors in 2013 and Barshim indoors in 2014. They, along with a few others, had been instrumental in making their event one of the hottest in the sport.
Barshim had been clean through 7-7¼ (2.32m), a height also cleared by American Erik Kynard and Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko, while Bondarenko had calmly passed after clearing 7-4½ (2.25m) in his only effort up to this point.
Bondarenko went into the lead with his first-jump clearance of 7-8½ (2.35m), while Barshim and Protsenko needed 3 attempts to stay in the competition. Kynard went out at this height. Barshim cleared 7-9¾ (2.38m) on his first attempt to take the lead, while Bondarenko passed again and Protsenko missed his lone effort at this height (he would go out at the next height after missing on his two remaining jumps).
The crowd was really getting into it now, following every attempt closely. The B&B boys rewarded the fans’ attention by clearing 7-10½ (2.40m) on their second attempts, the first time in history that two men jumped that high in the same competition. And they weren’t done yet, as each cleared an amazing 7-11¼ (2.42m) on their first jumps! Barshim was trailing Bondarenko because of his early misses and missed on his one attempt at 8-feet even (2.44m), with his rival again passing.
They then took aim at the World Record of 8-½ (2.45m), which was set by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor in 1993. Neither was successful at 8-¾ (2.46m), although Barshim was tantalizingly close on one of his two attempts. While the event ended with failures, no one was disappointed after witnessing one of the greatest head-to-head battles the sport had ever seen.
Here’s his near WR miss:
“The crowd was fantastic,” said Barshim. “To come down and have the whole stadium on its feet clapping, as a high jumper that is amazing.”
Editors note: They may not have jumped quite as high in Tokyo, but is there a better moment in high jump history than this one? Skip ahead to 3:40 if you’re in a hurry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjSCT97GSsA
