Bondarenko gamble pays off

At his home in Cuba, Javier Sotomayor might have tuned into the news from Moscow on Thursday and heaved a sigh of relief.

The former high jump champion would have found out that his world record was very much intact, having survived a serious assault on it from a young man who is talented, ambitious and fearless.

Bohdan Bondarenko is not a name that rings a bell outside the high jump pit but he has rapidly risen up the ranks this season and on Thursday, it was his turn to climb the top of the podium at the World Championships.

The 23-year-old Ukrainian showed his adventurous streak on his way to the gold medal, preferring to take as few jumps as possible. At the end of the day, though, he had lifted his event into spotlight with a championship record of 2.41 metres. As his thrilled Ukrainian compatriots made their way out of the Luzhniki Stadium, Bondarenko revealed the reason behind his methods.

“I was actually forced to adopt such ways, as my leg was hurting,” he said. “It was the only way for me to win a medal. Five days ago, my hip started to pain. In the qualifying round here, I tried to put as little pressure on it as possible, and then, my foot started to hurt too. I was forced to skip heights as I was preserving myself,” he said, admitting that it was a gamble he was taking.

It paid off as his main rival, Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, couldn’t match 2.41 – one centimetre more than his personal best – and failed to go over 2.44 on two attempts. The rivalry had the fans in thrall right through but they couldn’t scream their lungs out, for this is one high jumper who prefers to do his job in silence.

Unlike other jumpers, Bondarenko demands total silence when he prepares to jump and on Thursday, the entire stadium obliged him as he attempted 2.46 metres, one centimetre more than Sotomayor’s mark set 20 years ago (not ten as reported on Thursday). He missed out on all his three attempts but it was clear that here was someone capable of flying high.

“It is a great dream for me, I really wanted to clear 2.46. There is always hope but it is impossible to predict when the record will come. It depends on a lot of things, especially injuries. The most important thing is to overcome small injuries,” said the man who grew up idolising his country’s most famous athlete, pole vault legend Sergei Bubka.

A former worldjunior champion, Bondarenko was seventh at the Olympic Games last year, after clearing 2.29. The failure to win a medal inspired him to work harder, improving his personal best by a whopping ten centimetres this year, with a 2.41 effort at the Lausanne Diamond League on July 4.

“It was bad I couldn’t win a medal, though I cleared the same height as the bronze medallists,” he said. “But from another angle, it was good too. Had I won a medal, I wouldn’t have been able to prepare this well for the Worlds.

“I would have taken more time off, I would have been more relaxed. As it turned out, I was quite angry and wanted to train hard, to deliver results,” he said.

With Barshim and bronze medallist Derek Drouin of Canada – who cleared a personal best of 2.38 on Thursday  – pushing him, Bondarenko has serious competition. More significantly, the rivalry is certain to keep his event in spotlight.

“The new generation has arrived,” proclaimed Bondarenko. “We are raising the bar higher. The road to Rio is going to be fun and I believe we will see a world record before the next Olympic Games.”