Reigning World Junior high jump champion Alessia Trost of Italy ruled the women’s event tonight with 1.95, perhaps not surprising given her seven-centimetre lead in the season’s statistical list with no rival nearby.

From the start, it became a duel between Bulgaria’s Venelina Veneva, the oldest competitor at 38, and Trost, the youngest at 19.

Both jumpers started at the 1.75 opening height and matched each other with blemish-free records through the sixth bar at 1.93 before Veneva finally exited at 1.95, which the Italian cleared on her first attempt.

Trost then asked for 2.00, the height where genuine respect begins for female high jumpers.  After crashing through the bar on her first try, the 1.88m-tall Trost had two reasonably good efforts as she attempted to add to her world-leading 1.98 of one week ago.

Finishing behind Trost (1.95) and Veneva (1.93) was Olena Kholosha of Ukriane in a PB 1.93, as Sweden’s Emma Green-Tregaro took fourth at the same height.