Russian high jumper Maria Lasitskene will remember 2021 not only because of her victory at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
She also triumphed for the fifth time in the Diamond League, the main commercial start in athletics.
Before her, only six athletes managed to achieve this.
That Lasitskene would be able to finish the season so successfully, there were big doubts a month ago.
The Russian woman was not included in the top six in the overall standings of her discipline, and without this she could not have qualified for the final stage in Zurich, where the main prizes of the Diamond League were played - a special trophy with precious stones, $ 30 thousand and a personal quota for the championship the world in 2022.
Lasickene missed the competition in Eugene due to the lack of an American visa.
But on the other hand, she was welcomed in Europe, and she successfully performed in the next three qualifying tournaments to be among the best athletes at the end of the season.
She won the Lausanne stage and was second in Paris and Brussels.
Lasitskene almost even took the lead in the overall standings - before the Ukrainian Irina Gerashchenko, she lacked two points.
The winners of the Tokyo Olympics, Australian Nicola McDermott and Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh, Polish Kamila Litsvinko and another representative of the Green Continent, Eleanor Patterson, also qualified for the final, along with Lasitskene.
None of them, besides the Russian woman, became the champion of the Diamond League final.
Patterson was the first to leave the competition in Zurich.
For the athlete who had never conquered the two-meter height, the bar was another 10 cm lower than the problem. Litsvinko was the next to finish the fight, unable to jump 1.96 m. Lasitsken barely stumbled in this round.
It took her all three attempts to finally take her usual height.
Gerashchenko spoke in a similar way, and Maguchikh and McDermott did not make a single mistake.
Lasitskene corrected herself at a height of 1.99 m, taking it the first time, after which she made an unexpected and risky decision to skip the next rise of the bar by 2 cm.Here Maguchikh and McDermott continued their series of flawless jumps, and Gerashchenko left the sector.
As in the Olympic Games, the same athletes remained in the top three.
The decision to skip 2.01 meters turned out to be quite justified.
Lasitskene returned to the sector and immediately conquered 2.03 m. Maguchikh did the same in front of her, and McDermott made her first misfire.
She decided to immediately postpone her attempts to the next height, but this did not help catch up with the rivals who had pulled ahead.
It was not possible to take 2.05 m from the Maguchikhs, which would have become a new personal record for her.
But Lasitskene overcame the bar on the second attempt.
For the first time since June 2019, she's found herself so high in outdoor stadiums.
The Russian athlete at the same time broke the record for the competition in Zurich, which was held for 17 years, and became the leader of the season.
But the competition did not end there.
The Maguchikhs had one more attempt to displace Lasitskene from the first place.
But at an altitude of 2.07 m, she was in for a failure.
The Olympic champion also tried to conquer this bar, but after the second approach she abandoned this venture.
She could not miss her harvest of trophies and prizes.
After the victory, Lasitskene noted that she especially liked performing in front of the audience, but admitted: sometimes she wanted it to be quiet in the stands.
“This is an incredible feeling.
Jumping in front of crowded stands is fantastic.
Thanks so much for making this possible.
I am very happy with my competition record, in Switzerland I am very lucky.
The stadium here is both challenging and fantastic at the same time.
Difficult for the coverage and fantastic for the audience.
Although on some attempts, I asked them to remain silent, because I needed to concentrate.
This season has been just wonderful, ”Lasickene said.
On September 9, the final of the Diamond League will continue, and three more Russian athletes will start at the start.
High jumper Ilya Ivanyuk, pole vaulters Anzhelika Sidorova and Timur Morgunov will fight for the title.