Ivan Ukhov leaps 2.36m to lead the world

Russia's 2010 European Athletics Championships silver medallist Ivan Ukhov went over a world-leading 2.36m at the Opole jumping festival in Poland on Saturday.

Ukhov, who also won the gold medal at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year and pocketed $40,000 recently as the winner of the Diamond Race at the Samsung Diamond League meetings in his event, added two centimetres to the 2.34m mark he set at the Monaco Diamond League meeting in July.

He arrived at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona later that month as the favourite but, in damp conditions, he had to settle for second place behind his compatriot Aleksandr Shustov.

Second and third in Opole were local jumpers Konrad Owczarek and Robert Wolski, who both went over 2.26m.

The women’s competition was won by the Czech Republic’s Iva Strakova with 1.88m, while in the men’s discus Poland’s 21-year-old emerging talent Przemyslaw Czajkowski won with 61.99m.