Woo Sang-hyeok tops the list for men's high jump

Olympian high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok, well-known for his smile on the face on the field, has topped the latest rankings by the World Athletics as a South Korean track and field athlete for the first time.

According to the world rankings by the World Athletics released on the organization’s official website as of Friday, Woo Sang-hyeok in the area of Men's High Jump outcompeted Gianmarco Tamberi, an Italian athlete who had ranked world No. 1 since Sept. 14 last year. The world rankings announced on Friday reflect records made until Tuesday. Ranking No. 10 as of Jan. 4 this year, Woo has constantly risen higher in the rankings.

The World Athletics calculates the world rankings based on the average of the five highest scores that an athlete has garnered in competitions for the recent 12 months. Major international events such as the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games gain a weighted value in the scoring system for the world rankings. Athletes should show an outstanding and consistent level of performance for the recent 12 months to climb the rankings.

Woo’s top five highest-performing competitions over the past 12 months are as follows: the World Athletics Indoor Tour meeting in Banska Bystrica in February, the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade in March, the World Athletics Diamond League event in Doha in May, and the preliminary round (2m28, joint No. 1) and finals (2m35, No. 2) of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in Eugene, the United States, in July. Woo earned 1,388 points, 11 points higher than Tamberi with 1,377 points.

Mutaz Essa Barshim, the winner of the World Athletics Championships this year with a record of 2.37 meters followed by Woo, has been excluded from the world rankings as he only joined three competitions over the past 12 months.

Woo plans to join the World Athletics Diamond League events in Monaco on Aug. 10 and in Lausanne on Aug. 26. Afterwards, he will jump for the final series of the 2022 World Athletics Diamond League in Zurich for two days starting from Sept. 7.


Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com