It was a big weekend for the high jumpers in Germany with the famous Eberstadt High Jump Meeting taking place for the 40th and final time.
On Saturday (25), Lithuania’s Airine Palsyte gained a semblance of revenge over two of the athletes who finished above her in the medal positions at the European Athletics Championships. And this time countback worked in her favour.
Palsyte finished fourth in Berlin, missing out on a podium finish after Bulgaria’s Mirela Demireva - who passed at 1.96m - cleared 2.00m on her third attempt to move up into silver, shunting Palsyte out of medal contention in the process.
But though rain at the end did not allow any attack at two metres in Eberstadt, the height of 1.94m was enough for the reigning European indoor champion to triumph with Sweden’s Erika Kinsey in second on the same height.
'Victory here and solid jumps on 1.96m brought me some good emotions and even if I really wanted to jump more I still finish my season with a huge smile,' said Palsyte, whose build-up to the European Championships was marred by injury.
Jungfleisch - who won bronze on countback in Berlin ahead of Palsyte - was third with 1.88m, ahead of Ukraine’s Yulia Levchenko on countback in fourth with Demireva back in seventh on 1.84m.
Germany’s newly crowned European champion Mateusz Przybylko could not repeat his heroics from Berlin as he finished 10th on Sunday (26) albeit with 2.24m but there was real encouragement for Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi - the 2016 European champion - who cleared season’s bests of 2.30m and then 2.33m to finish second.
That is the highest he has cleared since returning to the sport after sustaining the ankle injury which ruled him out of the Olympic Games in Rio in 2016.
'Thanks to everyone who has always supported me and given me words of comfort, we can finally say it, scream it - half-shave is back!' said Tamberi, who finished fourth at the European Championships in Berlin, after the competition.
Victory went to Australia’s in-form Brandon Starc with 2.36m with European U20 champion Maksim Nedasekau from Belarus sharing third with former world champion Donald Thomas from the Bahamas on 2.27m.