Ultimate preview: men's high jump

World lead: 2.34m JuVaughn Harrison (USA) Monaco, 5 Aug2026 world list | world rankings

World record: 2.45m Javier Sotomayor (CUB) Salamanca, 27 Jul 93world all-time list | world record progression

Mateusz Kołodziejski couldn’t disguise his delight and surprise in winning the Diamond League high jump title in Brussels last week, which booked his spot at the Ultimate Championship.

The Pole produced a best clearance of 2.28m to edge out JuVaughn Harrison of the US, who boasts the world lead so far in 2026.

His clearance of 2.34m back in Monaco at the start of August remains the benchmark for the season with his peers and he has previous in Budapest. It was there three years ago that he equalled his personal best of 2.36m to take the silver medal behind Gianmarco Tamberi.

The Italian has been curtailed by injury for a lot of the time since then, but the 34-year-old appears to have broken off the shackles of his ailments with something of a renaissance.

The ever-popular athlete won the European Championships on his daughter’s first birthday, with world indoor champion Oleh Doroshchuk having to make do with second, and it helped Tamberi earn an exceptional invitation to the Ultimate.

In recent times, the men’s high jump has been dominated by Hamish Kerr but he is missing from the end-of-season finale. So too is Woo Sanghyeok, who was runner-up to the New Zealander in Tokyo last year.

Kerr, the Olympic and world champion, cleared 2.28m in Auckland in March but has not competed since. And Woo has faced his own challenges this season. He suffered plantar fascia damage when his spike broke while competing in Tokyo in May and subsequently did not compete for three months.

Ukraine’s Doroshchuk took the early-season honours by winning at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń in March, and his season’s best set on home soil in June is just one centimetre shy of Harrison’s world lead. He also won at the Monaco Diamond League with 2.32m and shared third with Tamberi at the Diamond League Final.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics

Title key: 🏅 Olympic champion, 🌍 world champion, 💎 Diamond League champion