Jacques Freitag, South Africa’s world champion, won the high jump at the annual Gran Premio International Athletics meeting in Salamanca on Tuesday evening with an excellent height of 2,34m, only 1cm below the 2004 best of 2,35m.
The 22-year-old Pretoria athlete, who is on an exploratory tour to Europe to try to determine whether his injured ankle has healed and if he should go to the Athens Olympics, was on cloud nine when he phoned his manager, Peet van Zyl, shortly after the competition on Tuesday evening.
”I am really coming right and everything seems to be falling into place. I reverted to my adjusted seven-pace run-up and everything went wonderfully well.
”I cleared the height with my very first attempt,” he told Van Zyl, adding that he had no pain in his ankle. — Sapa