A mere four centimetres separates the season’s bests of the top nine entrants, setting up a tightly contested high jump competition at the Tokyo World Championships — one where Mutaz Barshim will arrive as an outsider rather than a favourite.
Barshim, a three-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist, has cleared just 2.13m this season — 30 centimetres below his personal best.
If he misses the podium, it will be the first time since the 2011 World Championships in Daegu that he fails to medal at a global outdoor event.
His long-time rival Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy is also not in top form, having managed a best of 2.20m in 2025. The two, who shared gold in the Tokyo Olympics, have been outpaced this year by a new crop of contenders.
Korea’s Woo Sang-hyeok leads the field with a 2.34m clearance at the Diamond League in Monaco and also won the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
He cut his European leg of the season short because of a calf injury, but he has allayed fears it was anything serious in the lengthy lead-up to Tokyo.
The 29-year-old is still hopeful of producing his best finish at an outdoor global championships, improving on the bronze medal he earned at the 2022 World Championships.
Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk also cleared 2.34m indoors this season and was recently beaten by just two centimetres by New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr at the Diamond League final in Zurich.
Kerr won Olympic gold last year in a dramatic contest with US jumper Shelby McEwen. Unlike Barshim and Tamberi’s shared gold moment, Kerr and McEwen chose to compete for outright victory, with Kerr prevailing.
McEwen insists to this day he has no regrets about going for outright gold, despite having to make do with the runner-up spot. McEwen has struggled to find form this year, with a best of 2.26m.
Two men have bests of 2.33m this season: Jan Stefala of Czechia and Yuto Seko of Japan, the latter of which was a national record leading to high hopes of a potential medal in front of his home fans.
Seko, who competes wearing spectacles, seemed to have room to spare when he cleared 2.33m. Four more men have made their way over 2.30m this year. At 22, Israel’s Jonathan Kapitolnik is one of the rising stars of his discipline.
A world and European U20 champion in 2021, this year he has progressed to 2.31m and won at the World University Games.
Tamberi is joined on the Italian team by Stefano Sottile, a two-time Olympian and part-time computer programmer, who hails from an athletic family.
His brother Davide competed in a number of different disciplines while Stefano began with the javelin before making the move across to the high jump where he has excelled ever since.
He faces competition for top Italian in Tokyo from another rising star, Matteo Sioli. The 19-year-old earned European indoor bronze earlier this year, then claimed gold at the European U23 Championships.