Ballarat high jumper Yual Reath is closing in on his dream to make the Australian Olympic team, soaring to a personal best of 2.30m in winning at the Rare Air event at the weekend in Melbourne.
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Reath cleared the mark on his second attempt and then had three attempts at the official Olympic qualifier of 2.33m, but just clipped the bar with his legs on his first two attempts before pulling out of the third.
The victory in Melbourne though moves Reath to the number one position in Australia this season and also leaves him as the sixth best Australian in history.
He is now ranked 27th in the world and this week will attempt to earn his qualification for the Olympics at the National Athletics Championships in Adelaide. The top 32 in the world are likely to earn Olympic qualification.
Reath said now that he had cleared 2.30m, he hoped it would open up opportunities for the season.
"My goal was to get an opportunity to compete in Japan on May 19, but now that I've cleared 2.30m, I'm hoping I might get an invite to a Diamond League event in Shanghai on April 27," he said.
"The big win coming up also will be the Oceania Championships in June."
Reath said he felt confident of reaching 2.33m this week.
"I was pretty close, my first two attempts my hip and back were over, but I just lost it a bit in the lower part of my body," he said.
"I'm definitely confident I can reach 2.33m, when I was in Sydney I jumped the 2.28m and then missed the 2.30m. This time I've got the 2.30m, and missed the 2.33m, I feel I'm getting better each competition,
"I see this is as my redemption season, I had a few injuries in my 2022-23 season, I'm now sixth in Australia and I hope to go even better."
