Olympic champion Hamish Kerr has chosen the new world champion in the high jump in Tokyo. The New Zealander crossed 2.36 m in the title fights in Japan and prevailed against Woo Sang Hyeok from South Korea (2.34) with world year best. Bronze secured Jan Stefela (Czech Republic/2.31).
At his triumph, Kerr also benefited from the bad luck of the two superstars of the Hochprung: Gianmarco Tamberi (Italy) and Mutaz Barshim (Qatar) had divided gold among themselves in the past four world championships. But this time the two buddies that had shared in Tokyo Olympic gold four years ago were not there in the final. Tamberi succeeded in qualifying as well as the German champion Tobias Potye (Cologne), Barshim was not at the start in Japan due to injury.