1988 Summer Olympics / Athletics - High Jump (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	high jump
gender	Men
Attendees	27 athletes from 17 countries
Competition location	Seoul Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	September 24, 1988 (qualifying) September 25, 1988 (final)
Medalist Hennadij Avdjejenko ( URS )   Hollis Conway ( USA )   Rudolf Powarnitsyn ( URS ) Patrik Sjöberg ( SWE )

The men's high jump at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul was held on September 24th and 25th, 1988 in two rounds in the Seoul Olympic Stadium. 27 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was Hennadij Avdjejenko from the Soviet Union. He won ahead of the American Hollis Conway . Two bronze medals were awarded as two athletes reached the same height with the same number of failed attempts. The medals went to Rudolf Powarnitsyn from the Soviet Union and Patrik Sjöberg from Sweden.

The 1984 Olympic champions Dietmar Mögenburg and Carlo Thränhardt competed for the Federal Republic of Germany . Both reached the final. Mögenburg finished sixth, Thränhardt seventh.
Athletes from the GDR, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein did not take part.

Current title holders

Olympic champion 1984	Dietmar Mögenburg ( Federal Republic of Germany )	2.35 m	Los Angeles 1984
World Champion 1987	Patrik Sjöberg ( Sweden )	2.38 m	Rome 1987
European champion 1986	Igor Paklin ( Soviet Union )	2.34 m	Stuttgart 1986
Pan American champion 1987	Javier Sotomayor ( Cuba )	2.32 m	Indianapolis 1987
Central America and Caribbean Champion 1987	Clarence Saunders ( Bermuda )	2.26 m	Caracas 1987
South America Champion 1987	Fernando Moreno ( Argentina )	2.17 m	São Paulo 1987
Asian champion 1987	Liu Yungpeng ( People's Republic of China )	2.24 m	Singapore 1987
African Champion 1988	Boubacar Guèye ( Senegal )	2.16 m	Annaba 1988

Existing records

World record	2.43 m	Javier Sotomayor ( Cuba )	Salamanca , Spain	September 8, 1988
Olympic record	2.36 m	Gerd Wessig ( GDR )	Final of Moscow , Soviet Union (today Russia )	August 1, 1980

qualification

Date: September 24, 1988

For the qualification, the athletes were drawn into two groups. The qualification height for the direct entry into the final was 2.28 m. Since only seven jumpers jumped this height (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best jumpers from both groups (highlighted in light green). In the end, 2.25 m was enough for participation in the finals, which the athletes in the second group jumping later had already achieved. So the actual qualification level was not even tackled by one of them after the 2.25 m had been mastered.

Group A

space	Surname	nation	2.05 m	2.10 m	2.15 m	2.19 m	2.22 m	2.25 m	2.28 m	height	annotation
1	Dietmar Mögenburg	BR Germany	-	-	-	O	-	O	O	2.28 m
	Igor Paklin	Soviet Union	-	-	-	O	-	O	O
3	Geoff Parsons	Great Britain	-	-	O	-	-	xo	O	2.28 m
4th	Clarence Saunders	Bermuda	-	-	-	O	-	xxo	O	2.28 m
5	Hollis Conway	United States	-	-	-	O	O	xo	x o	2.28 m
	Dalton Grant	Great Britain	-	-	-	O	-	xo	x o
7th	Arturo Ortíz	Spain	O	-	O	-	xo	xo	x o	2.28 m
8th	Róbert Ruffíni	Czechoslovakia	-	-	O	O	xo	O	xxx	2.25 m
9	Luca Toso	Italy	-	-	O	xo	-	xx o	xxx	2.25 m
10	Troy Kemp	Bahamas	-	-	O	O	-	-	xxx	2.19 m
	Sorin Matei	Romania	-	-	-	O	-	xxx
12	Floyd Manderson	Great Britain	O	O	O	xx o	xxx			2.19 m
13	Paul Ngadjadoum	Chad	O	O	O	-				2.15 m

Group B

space	Surname	nation	2.05 m	2.10 m	2.15 m	2.19 m	2.22 m	2.25 m	2.28 m	height	annotation
1	Patrik Sjöberg	Sweden	-	-	-	O	O	O	-	2.25 m
2	Rudolf Powarnitsyn	Soviet Union	-	-	-	xo	O	O	-	2.25 m
	Brian Stanton	United States	-	-	O	O	xo	O	-
4th	Hennadij Avdjejenko	Soviet Union	-	-	O	-	xxo	O	-	2.25 m
5	James Allen Howard	United States	-	O	O	-	O	x o	-	2.25 m
	Carlo Thränhardt	BR Germany	-	-	-	O	-	x o	-
7th	Krzysztof Krawczyk	Poland	-	-	O	-	xo	x o	-	2.25 m
8th	Milton Ottey	Canada	-	-	-	xo	O	xxx		2.22 m
9	Jo Hyeon-uk	South Korea	-	O	O	-	xx o	-	xxx	2.22 m
10	Brian Marshall	Canada	-	O	xxo	xxo	xx o	xxx		2.22 m
11	Artur Partyka	Poland	-	O	O	O	xxx			2.19 m
12	Zhu Jianhua	People's Republic of China	-	O	-	x o	xxx			2.19 m
13	Fernando Pastoriza	Argentina	O	O	xxx					2.10 m
ogV	Cheick Seynou	Burkina Faso	xxx								without height

final

Date: September 25, 1988

The Cuban world record holder Javier Sotomayor could not take part in Seoul due to the boycott of his country . Otherwise, the high jump top of the world was completely at the start. In addition to the 1984 Olympic champion Dietmar Mögenburg, four former world record jumpers competed: Patrik Sjöberg from Sweden - also reigning world champion , Zhu Jianhua from China and Igor Paklin and Rudolf Powarnizyn from the Soviet Union. With Paklin and his compatriot Hennadij Awdjejenko, the two World Cup runners-up from 1987 were also in the field. A high-class competition was to be expected. Jianhua surprisingly failed to qualify. A total of sixteen athletes had qualified for the final: three jumpers each from the Soviet Union and three from the USA, two jumpers from the Federal Republic of Germany, two British and one participant each from Bermuda, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Spain and Czechoslovakia .

At the height of 2.34 m there were still eight jumpers fighting for the medals, with Paklin one and the German Carlo Thränhardt already having two failed attempts and taking their last jumps to the next height. However, both did not jump over the 2.36 m and were eliminated. While Avdjejenko and the US athlete Hollis Conway managed this height in the first attempt, Sjöberg and Powarnitsyn needed two attempts. Mögenburg and Clarence Saunders from Bermudas each tore once and took their remaining two attempts with them to the next height of 2.38 m. Both Saunders and Mögenburg failed. Saunders was fifth due to fewer failed attempts, Mögenburg sixth.

Hennadij Awdjejenko was the only jumper who could cross the 2.38 m. That was a new Olympic record and brought him the Olympic victory. Conway, like Powarnitsyn and Sjöberg, had three failed attempts. Hollis Conway won the silver medal for climbing the previous 2.36 m height on his first jump. Both Rudolf Powarnizyn and Patrik Sjöberg received bronze because they only had one failed attempt each at 2.36 m. Olympic champion Avdjejenko had 2.40 m put up, but tore the bar the first time. He saved the two remaining attempts for the world record height of 2.44 m, which he could not skip.

space	Surname	nation	2.15 m	2.20 m	2.25 m	2.28 m	2.31 m	2.34 m	2.36 m	2.38 m	2.40	2.44	Bottom line	annotation
1	Hennadij Avdjejenko	Soviet Union	-	O	O	-	O	O	O	x o	x-	xx	2.38 m	OR
2	Hollis Conway	United States	-	xo	xo	O	O	xo	O	xxx			2.36 m
3	Rudolf Powarnitsyn	Soviet Union	-	O	O	O	O	O	x o	xxx			2.36 m
	Patrik Sjöberg	Sweden	-	-	O	-	O	-	x o	xxx
5	Clarence Saunders	Bermuda	-	O	xo	-	x--	O	x--	xx			2.34 m
6th	Dietmar Mögenburg	BR Germany	-	-	O	-	xo	x o	x--	xx			2.34 m
7th	Dalton Grant	Great Britain	-	-	O	-	O	xxx					2.31 m
	Igor Paklin	Soviet Union	-	O	O	-	O	x--	xx
	Carlo Thränhardt	BR Germany	-	-	O	-	O	xx-	x
10	James Allen Howard	United States	-	O	O	xo	O	xxx					2.31 m
11	Brian Stanton	United States	O	-	O	O	x o	xxx					2.31 m
12	Krzysztof Krawczyk	Poland	-	O	O	xo	xx o	xxx					2.31 m
13	Luca Toso	Italy	xo	O	O	xxx							2.25 m
14th	Arturo Ortíz	Spain	O	-	xx o	xxx							2.25 m
15th	Róbert Ruffíni	Czechoslovakia	O	xx o	xxx								2.20 m
16	Geoff Parsons	Great Britain	O	-	xxx								2.15 m

Web links

• SportsReference high jump , accessed January 27, 2018
• Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , athletics results: p. 242, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 27, 2018

Video

• 2 38 and WR attempt Gennadiy Avdeyenko 1988 Olympics High Jump , published August 7, 2016 on youtube.com, accessed January 27, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Beijing 2015, page 676 , accessed on January 27, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} Official report on the Olympic Games in Seoul Volume two, part two , Athletics results: p. 242, English / French (PDF, 25.64 MB), accessed on January 27, 2018