Nobody could have blamed Derek Drouin for greeting the news of the postponed Olympic Games with a fist pump, a high five and a cartwheel.

World and Olympic high jump champion Derek Drouin has proved a formidable championship performer in recent times. The Canadian, however, talks about the difficulties he faced after taking bronze medals at the 2012 Olympic Games and 2013 World Championships.

The world’s finest high jumpers will return to the Oslo Bislett Games for a showdown at the fifth leg of the 2017 IAAF Diamond League on 15 June as the gold, silver and bronze medallists from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are all confirmed to compete in the Norwegian capital.

As our 2016 year-end review series continues, statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best jumps performances of the year.

When Derek Drouin soared to gold at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games courtesy of a flawless record up to and including his winning height of 2.38m, it seemed hard to imagine the difficult road he had taken to stand tall at the top of the podium.

Derek Drouin has been a bit under the radar for much of this summer, despite being the wold champion, but he cleared 2.38m at the Eberstadt high jump meeting in Germany last month to show all was well and replicated that height when winning in Rio.

In the absence of Italy’s world indoor and European champion Gianmarco Tamberi, who cleared a national record of 2.39m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco but then injured himself when attempting what would have been a world-leading 2.41m, this event looks quite open.

On Monday (11), the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) and Athletics Canada named the 65 athletes nominated to represent Canada in athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games from 5-21 August.

World champions in three different jumping events will compete at Monaco’s Herculis meeting, the next stop on the IAAF Diamond League circuit, on 15 July.

Organisers for the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on 5 June have announced a superb high jump field, including Canada’s world champion Derek Drouin, Italy’s world indoor champion Gianmarco Tamberi and British star Robbie Grabarz.

Local heroes Mutaz Essa Barshim and Abdalelah Haroun will be out to impress their home fans at the opening IAAF Diamond League meeting of 2016, which see the series start in Doha on 6 May.

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best jumps performances of the year.