Woo Sang-hyeok jumps in Diamond League 2022

'Smile Jumper' Woo Sang-hyeok will face off again with his rival Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar, who won the gold medal at the 2022 World Athletics (WA).

Woo will take part in the high jump of the Diamond League 2022 to be held in Monaco at dawn on Thursday. Barshim, who jumped 2.37 meters in the high jump final of the World Athletics Championships on July 19, will also compete in the Diamond League this year. Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy, Django Lovett of Canada and Andri Prochenko of Ukraine, all top ranked men's high jumpers, who tied for first place with Barshim at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will also be pitted against each other.

Woo Sang-hyeok will accumulate points in the upcoming competition and in the Lausanne (Switzerland) Disciple on Aug. 27 and will advance to the Final in which only the top six players will compete to become Diamond League Champion on the in Zurich on Sept. 8 and 9. Woo participated in only the Doha competition among the three Diamond League high jump qualification events held earlier and was ranked 6th garnering eight points. In the Diamond League, points are awarded sequentially from 1st place (8 points) to 8th place (1 point) according to tournament performance. Lovett and Tamberi are in the first place with 15 points. Barshim, who only competed in the Doha Disciple and finished 2nd after Woo, is in the 8th place with seven points.

Considering that the jumper tied for the 6th place earned 14 points in 2019, the top six athletes will be earning roughly 17-18 points this year. Woo will earn more than 20 points by placing 3rd or higher in each of the remaining two disciplines. Considering that Woo Sang-hyeok has been on the podium in every major tournament recently held, him qualifying for the Diamond League Final, a “dream stage” that he said he has only watched on YouTube will be a breeze.


leper@donga.com