(MENAFN- Gulf Times) It was not quite the assault on 2.40m and above that was envisaged, but Mutaz Barshim took the world lead from Bogdan Bondarenko and the early points in Shanghai yesterday in what should be a year-long rivalry through the rest of the IAAF Diamond League.
Indeed, Bondarenko was the only one of the two to attempt a height above 2.40m. He had to, as two misses at 2.38m saw him trailing Barshim who sailed over it first time. When he missed his one and only attempt at 2.41m, Barshim opted not to go any higher.
Barshim won at 2.38m, a world lead one centimetre higher than Bondarenko had jumped at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Kawasaki a week ago. Bondarenko was second at 2.32m € he had passed 2.35m as the top two played cat-and-mouse € ahead of China's Zhang Guowei on countback at the same height.
Afterwards Barshim explained why he did not attempt to go higher.
"It's too early," he said. "This was my first competition and my body is not ready yet. I can jump it, but I don't want to put my body under that stress so early in the season. The target here was to win."
Bondarenko was not that close at either 2.38m or his one attempt at 2.41m. Barshim, too, had a little wobble, requiring two attempts at his second height of 2.29m and giving the bar a decent whack on the successful jump.
Barshim agreed he had struggled a little early. "I needed three or four jumps to get the rhythm," he said.
China bade a fond farewell to its greatest athlete as Liu Xiang, the nation's peerless sprint hurdler, took a bow in front of 40,000 fans in his home city of Shanghai after a spectacular Diamond League meeting.
On a night when Ethiopian Almaz Ayana recorded the third fastest 5,000 metres in history, nothing could upstage the ceremony after the event in the Shanghai Stadium to honour the former Olympic 110m hurdles champion Liu, who retired last month.
After making an emotional speech to the crowd, Liu was joined by his fellow hurdlers, led by world champion David Oliver and Olympic champion Aries Merritt, in a gentle lap of honour which reduced some fans to tears.
Earlier, the crowd had been treated to the sight of six world bests for the year, with pride of place going to Ayana, the 23-year-old who missed the world record of her Ethiopian compatriot Tirunesh Dibaba by just over three seconds as she clocked 14 minutes 14.32.
Cranking up the speed over the last two kilometres with a brilliant solo effort on a windy evening, Ayana reckoned she did not even know what the record was as she came so close to Dibaba's mark of 14:11.15.
"I was surprised when I heard it was close," she told reporters before admitting the record will now be in her sights at the world championships in Beijing.
Others who set world leading marks were Silas Kiplagat (3min 35.29sec for 1500m), Jairus Kipchoge Birech (8min 05.36sec in the steeplechase), home favourite Gong Lijiao (20.35m in the shot) and Nikoleta Kiriakopoulou (4.73m in the pole vault) also set world leading marks.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was surprisingly well beaten in her opening 100 metres of the year as Blessing Okagbare-Ighoteguonor crushed a high-quality field.
Jamaica's double Olympic champion looked sluggish as she trailed home fifth in 11.25 seconds while up ahead, Nigeria's Okagbare-Ighoteguonor roared to victory in 10.98.
Okagbare-Ighoteguonor's huge stride over the second 50 metres allowed her to comfortably hold off a late challenge from American Tori Bowie, last year's world number one, who clocked 11.07sec.
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