Nicola Olyslagers has equalled her Australian and Oceanian record, soaring to deliver the best high jump by any woman in 2023 in front of a packed street crowd in Lausanne.
The Olympic silver medallist cleared 2.02 metres to win the Diamond League competition in the Swiss city's main square on Thursday and demonstrate her readiness to go for gold at the world championships later in the European summer.
The 26-year-old jumped a centimetre higher than the world-leading 2.01m she had shared with Ukraine’s world indoor champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh to take victory in the special event on the eve of Friday's main Athletissima meeting programme.
Another Ukrainian, Iryna Gerashchenko matched her lifetime best of 2.00m to take the runner's up spot, while Mahuchikh was third in 1.97m.
But Olyslagers was in commanding form, seemingly inspired by a big crowd close to the action in the intimate setting of Lausanne's Place Centrale, entering the competition at 1.87m and then having no failures either at 1.91m, 1.94m, 1.97m nor 2.00m.
With victory already looking nailed on, Olyslagers had her first failure at 2.02m, but let out a scream of delight as she then went over at the same height that she set to win her Olympic silver in Tokyo.
She even had a go at topping that mark, but missed out in her three attempts at 2.05m.
Olyslagers has maintained her unbeaten year, which has also featured victories and two-metre plus clearances at the Diamond League meeting in Paris and an event in Turku.
