‘Smile Jumper’ Woo Sang-hyuk (28, Yongin City Hall) won a bronze medal in the men’s high jump at the 19th World Indoor Athletics Championships.

Sanghyuk Woo recorded 2m28 in the men's high jump at the 2024 World Indoor Athletics Championships held at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, England on the 3rd (Korean time).

Woo Sang-hyuk, who became the first Korean track and field athlete to win his first major competition by surpassing 2m34 at the 2022 Belgrade World Indoor Athletics Championships, attempted to win his second consecutive title, but unfortunately only finished in third place.

Hamish Kerr (New Zealand) won the gold medal with a personal best of 2m36. Kerr, who had won a bronze medal at the event two years earlier, won her first major championship.

Shelby McEwan (USA) recorded the same 2m28 as Woo Sang-hyuk, but took the silver medal ahead of her in the time of her success.

Woo Sang-hyuk, who won the Banska Bystrica Indoor Championships in Slovakia (2m32) and the Nechvizdy Indoor Championships in the Czech Republic (2m30) last month, was considered a strong candidate to win this competition.

In addition, Woo Sang-hyuk's prospects for winning were bright as the best current jumper, Mutaz Essa Barsim (Qatar), and the 2023 World Outdoor Championships champion Gianmarco Tamberg (Italy) were also absent.

However, Woo Sang-hyuk failed to stay on top as he did not exceed 2m31 on this day.

In addition, since the World Indoor Athletics Championships were established in 1985, he is the third person to win two consecutive titles, following Cuba's Javier Sotomayor (1993 Toronto, 1995 Barcelona) and Sweden's Stefan Holm (2001 Lisbon, 2003 Birmingham, 2004 Budapest). The record wasn't even achieved.

The match on this day started at 2m15, but Woo Sang-hyuk skipped it and started his first jump at 2m20, succeeding in the first period.