Six key track and field match-ups to watch in Japan

Women’s high jump: Yaroslava Mahuchikh vs Nicola Olyslagers

Competition has been fierce this season in the women’s high jump, and you can thank Nicola Olyslagers and Yaroslava Mahuchikh for that.

Mahuchikh is the reigning world and Olympic champion, and last year cleared a remarkable 2.10m to set a new world record in the event.

The Ukrainian has won everything there is to win — but lying in wait to take the world title away from her is Olyslagers.

Mahuchikh held the world lead in the event at 2.02m from a clearance in Doha in May for nearly four full months. But, at the end of August, Australia’s double Olympic silver medallist Olyslagers won the Diamond Trophy with a 2.04m clearance that moved her to the top of the season list.

The Australian finished behind Mahuchikh at both the 2023 World Championships and the 2024 Olympic Games, but her win in Zurich — which was also a new Oceanian area record and Australian national record clearance — gives the match-up a bit of a twist this year.

And there’s a whole bevy of women right behind them waiting to pounce if either of them misses, including Mahuchikh’s teammate Yuliia Levchenko, Germany’s Christina Honsel, and Great Britain’s Morgan Lake, who have all cleared 2m this year — Levchenko and Lake’s marks both coming in Zurich too, with Lake setting a new British national record.

This competition is anyone’s to win.