Sanghyeok Woo captured Korea’s first ever High Jump medal in the 14-year history of this championship, clearing a 2.20m lifetime best to take the gold and continue his dramatic seven centimetre improvement in 2013.
The 17-year-old had only one minor blip en route to his final clearance, easily advancing at 2.02m, 2.11m, 2.14m, 2.16m, 2.18m and 2.20m on his first attempts before attacking 2.23m but to no avail.
In the silver medal position, 15-year-old Jiaxu Bai from China leapt a 2.18m personal best after clearing 1.97m, 2.02m, 2.07m and 2.11m on attempt number one, before taking two attempts at 2.14m and going straight ahead after 2.16m.
On succeeding in his second effort at 2.18m, the Chinese athlete then took three fruitless attempts at 2.20m to settle for the runner-up position.
It was China’s third medal in the history of this event at the World Youths, having claimed gold in Marrakech 2005 and Ostrava 2007, courtesy of Huang Haiqiang and Wang Chen.
In third with 2.16m, Jamaica’s Christoff Bryan took his nation’s first ever medal in this event in the editions of this championship, having enjoyed first-time clearances at 2.07m, 2.14m and 2.16m.
Beforehand, he skipped the 2.11m mark before registering three fouls at 2.18m which is four centimetres below his lifetime best.
Ukraine’s Oleksandr Barannikov and Bahamas’ Laquan Nairn both cleared 2.16m personal bests to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
