Nicola Olyslagers, Eleanor Patterson win high jump gold and silver at world indoor athletics championships

In a high-class competition, the pair both overcame Paris gold medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who finished with bronze.

“When I was out there competing, we were really testing a new run-up. That’s something I learned from Yaroslava. She had the courage to try something new in an Olympic year, and that meant that I too could have the courage to do something new and big,” Olyslagers said.

“When Eleanor cleared 1.97m, it reminded me of the Australian Championships in Adelaide last year when we went head-to-head so China felt like being at home, and that too gave me courage to bring my best. I think we bring the best out of each other.”

Patterson said she would have loved to jump higher, but was proud of her performance.

“I’ve changed my run-up completely, and in a lot of ways I would have loved more consistency before competing, but I love still being able to bring out some of my best performances,” she said.

“Two metres is well within my reach again and I’m in really good form to do that this year.”

The high jump medals made for the best-ever performance by Australia at the world indoors after Lachlan Kennedy won silver in the 60m sprint and Jess Hull and Ky Robinson both won bronze in the 3000m.

“The Olympics was great, indoors is great. We’re really going places as a sport,” Olyslagers said.

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