High jump star Nicola Olyslagers has claimed her first world championship gold medal at the 2025 Tokyo World Championships.

A huge rain storm hit the National Stadium at Tokyo, pausing the field events twice over the course of the evening due to torrential rain.

But Olyslagers only needed to clear 2.00, failing three times at 2.02 after a second rain delay to win on countback, capping a superb season.

“When I came here in Tokyo [for the Olympics], I left with a silver medal and I was blown away,” Olyslagers said. 

“And now [I’ve got] a gold. 

Nicola Olyslagers holds up her hands

Nicola Olyslagers led the high jump at the time of the suspension. (Getty Images: Cameron Spencer)

“I was jumping tonight and I realised in 2017 I came dead last, I didn’t clear the starting height and I’ve seen year by year just a gradual progression up. 

“But when I came last, I remember standing out there and I had so much peace because I knew that my performance didn’t determine my identity and my value. 

“So then coming in as number one, the pressure was off because I knew if you can’t lose anything when you come last and you can’t gain anything if you come first.” 

Eleanor Patterson finished in fifth place after three failures at 2.00m.

“If I had one clearance a little bit earlier it would have been incredible,” she said.

“But that’s the nature of our sport.”

Discus farce sees Denny fall short of medalMatt Denny slips on the ground

Matt Denny slipped in the circleas the rain fell. (Reuters: Fabrizio Bensch)

In the discus, thrower Matt Denny slipped as the rain came tumbling down, which led to the suspension of the field events.

Incredibly, despite the atrocious conditions, the athletes opted to come out and complete the discus competition in farcical scenes, with volunteers using towels to dry the circle as best they could, with athletes slipping and sliding all over the place.

Before the rain came, Ky Robinson ran to a stunning fourth place in the men’s 5,000m.

“I feel pretty happy. I mean, crossing the line in fourth,” Robinson said. 

“I’m over the moon with how I did and you know, a minute later you kind of have those initial thoughts coming in like, ‘hey, you’re one off the podium like, could you not have found something else?’

“But I don’t think I can.

“It was so hard in the entire race and I was like man, I’ll be lucky if I can finish this race yet alone position high up.”

Jess Hull was never in contention in the 800m final though, the superior pace of the two-lap specialists seeing her run out of the race, finishing eighth despite a hugely impressive time of 1:57.30, the second fastest ever by an Australian woman.

“It’s really fun to be out there with the best 800 metre women in the world. They just brought their A-game tonight,” Hull said.

“To see them all bring it and race like that to the line. 

“I definitely caught myself watching [gold medallist] Lilian [Odira] and Keely [Hodgkinson, who won bronze] and Georgia [Hunter-Bell, second] down that home straight, because I was so far back.

“But it was incredible.

“I’m really proud … I’m officially a 1:57-low woman … it wasn’t a fluke.”

The Australian men’s 4×100 metres did not manage to get the baton round in the final, as Calab Law failed to find Rohan Browning at the final change. 

Look back on how all the action unfolded in our live blog.

Key Events

3h ago3 hours agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:04pm

3h ago3 hours agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:46pm

4h ago4 hours agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 12:37pm

Show all key events7h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 9:28amWorld Athletics Championships, day nine

Results:

Nicola Olyslagers claimed gold in the women’s high jump competition, with Eleanor Patterson fifth.Matt Denny finishes fourth in a farcical discus competition where multiple athlete slippedKy Robinson finished a spectacular fourth in the 5,000m.
Jess Hull finishes eighth in the women’s 800m final.Australia dropped the baton in the 4x100m relay

2h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:26pm

Time to say goodnight(Getty Images)

So, I think we’ll wrap things up there.

Thank you all so much for being with me over the past nine days.

It’s been a long and successful championships for Australia.

Three bronze medals and a gold is a brilliant return.

And the best thing? There’s clearly so much more to come.

It’s a shame the competition ended in such unfortunate scenes with the rain and the slipping.

But it did give us photos like this.

Thanks for your company over the last week.

We’ll see you again soon.

2h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:13pm

Half the throws were fouls in that competition

2h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:10pm

I am sure we’ll hear more from this in the coming days

Surely cancelling the event could’ve been an option?

Thankfully no one was seriously injured

– Jackson

That was so hard to watch. I feel so sorry for all the athletes. Horrible conditions.

– JL

2h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:10pm

‘Horrendous conditions’

We were at the stadium and couldn’t believe they brought them back out to restart. Horrendous conditions. What other options would they have?

– Jo

I am stunned they let them compete – it must have been wild seeing them come back out from in the stadium.

Could they have come back tomorrow?

I think they should have.

That was dangerous, unnecessary and a farce.

2h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:09pm

DISCUS FINAL: Daniel Ståhl wins it with the final throw

That’s incredible drama!

Daniel Ståhl has won it on the final throw. 70.47.

So much of that was a hard watch, but Ståhl has used his experience to a tee.

Incredible stuff.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:08pm

DISCUS FINAL: Samoa wins bronze

Alex Rose of Samoa has won a bronze medal.

That’s a great achievement.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 2:04pmDISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny will finish fourth

Heartbreak for Matt Denny.

But for all the will in the world, this has been a joke of a competition.

A complete lottery.

He slipped outside of the circle.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:59pm

DISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny slips!

He did so well to stay on his feet there.

(Getty Images)

He was so lucky not to injure himself there.

You have to hold your breath with every throw.

It’s absurd.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:57pm

DISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny in third with two throws to go

Matt Denny threw 65.23 in that fourth round, so his third round score of 65.57 is what stands.

Daniel Ståhl is second in 67.47.

Mykolas Alekna is leading with 67.84.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:52pm

‘I find this a really hard watch’: Tamsyn Manou

The SBS commentators are finding this really hard.

“I’m finding this really hard to watch,” Tamsyn Manou said.

“Someone could get really hurt.”

Bruce McAveny said it’s not a fair competition.

The conditions have been changing a lot.

“This is not a fair competition,” he said.

“It has been rushed.”

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:46pmDISCUS: A horror fall for Lukas Weißhaidinger

Oh my word.

Lukas Weißhaidinger has just slammed into the ground and could have really damaged himself.

Oh that’s horrible.

This is as farcical a scene I’ve seen in a sporting arena.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:38pm

DISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny throws 65.57

That’s much better from Matt Denny.

He’s leaped into second place for now.

(Getty Images)

He has had to put tape on his standing foot just to maintain some kind of grip on the circle.

There is more rain coming, heavy rain in the next 10 to 30 minutes.

They are racing through this competition.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:37pm

DISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny throws 63.18

He’s in seventh place at the moment.

The conditions have been improving.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:32pm

DISCUS: Daniel Ståhl stepped out in the first round

Any idea why Stahl stepped out, Simon? It looked like a solid throw that would have led by the best part of seven metres. Is there a time limit on how long you have to wait before leaving the circle to make sure it’s a legal throw?

– Dave

I have absolutely no idea.

He had a phenomenal throw in the first round, completely against the prevailing conditions.

But then grimaced and stepped out the circle.

It looked good but maybe he felt that he’d brushed the edge of the circle with his shoe?

It didn’t look like it, but that’s all I can think of.

Because he didn’t react too badly afterwards.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:28pm

DISCUS FINAL(Getty Images)

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:27pm

DISCUS FINAL: Five men no-throw in first round

Is it drying out a bit now?

I maintain that this has turned farcical, but it seems to be a bit better now.

Matt Denny has ended the round in fourth place with his 59.09.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:24pm

‘Ridiculous’

This is ridiculous – and dangerous. Someone is going to get hurt here

– Dave

This is ridiculous.

– JL

Your thoughts are remarkably similar to my own.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:21pm

DISCUS FINAL: This is turning into a farce(Getty Images)

Mario Díaz has slipped in the circle.

This is ridiculous.

The circle is a bit slippery anyway and now it’s an ice rink.

Some athletes are in trainers. Some are in throwing shoes.

Mika Sosna has gone into the cage in his socks.

This is ridiculous.

3h agoSun 21 Sep 2025 at 1:18pm

DISCUS FINAL: Matt Denny throws

My my, this is really not great.

It’s tough, tough conditions.

It looks like he slipped on the first part of his spin.

He’s not happy.

He throw that out to 59.09m

But he actually looks a little bit angry.

I’d say this is a little bit farcical,

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