‘Smile Jumper’ Woo Sang-hyuk (28-Yongin City Hall) will take his final test before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the Diamond League in Monaco.

Woo’s highly anticipated first match of the season against Jean-Marco Tamberi (32-Italy) was canceled due to Tamberi’s injury.

Woo Sang-hyuk, who was training in the Czech Republic, traveled to Monaco on Nov. 11 (KST).

Woo will compete in the men’s high jump at the World Athletics Diamond League 2024, which kicks off at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

The event was initially highlighted by the fact that three of the world’s top four men’s high jumpers, with the exception of Mutaz Essa Barshim (Qatar), will be competing.

Sang Hyuk Woo and Jervon Harrison (USA) are still scheduled to compete in Monaco.

However, Tamberi is expected to miss out due to a thigh injury.

Tamberi was scheduled to compete at the Continental Tour in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, on Tuesday.

The plan was to race three days apart in Hungary and Monaco, similar to the qualifying and final rounds of the Paris Olympics.

She warmed up at the Székesfehérvár stadium on race day.

However, shortly before the race, she felt pain in her thigh and withdrew from the competition.

“I had a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and fortunately avoided any muscle damage, but minor fascia (membrane surrounding the muscle) damage was found,” Tamberi wrote on his social media accounts on Nov. 11, adding, “I will have to undergo intensive treatment for a week. It is difficult for me to play in Monaco,” he wrote.

He added: “I cried three times in 24 hours. Probably because of nervousness and fear. I’m still lying on my bed with a thousand doubts and fears,” he confessed, adding, “No one has ever won the Olympic men’s high jump more than once. I’m going to go for it. There hasn’t been an easy path in my history anyway,” he added.

Tamberley has only competed once this year, winning the men’s high jump final at the 2024 European Championships in Rome, Italy, on June 12 after clearing 2.37 meters.

His 2.37 meters is the world’s No. 1 mark this season.

Tamberley, who has a personal best of 2.39 meters, has been a frequent podium finisher at major competitions.

She tied for first with Barshim at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 (2.37m), won the World Championships in Budapest in 2023 (2.36m) and the World Indoor Championships in Oregon in 2016 (2.36m).

She won the Diamond League Final twice, in 2021 and 2022 (over 2.34m).

Tamberly, who had limited his competition this year in hopes of winning back-to-back Olympic titles, hit an injury bump a month before the men’s high jump final in Paris (Aug. 11).

Despite his absence, Woo will have plenty to contend with.

All eight jumpers competing in Monaco, including Woo, are top-ranked jumpers who have qualified for Paris.

For Harrison (personal best 2.36m, season’s best 2.34m), who finished fourth at the U.S. Trials, the Monaco Diamond League is a chance to redeem herself.

Other athletes to watch include 2024 World Indoor Championships gold medalist Hamish Kerr (NZL), U.S. national qualifier Shelby McCuean (USA), and Yual Rees (AUS), who cleared 2.30m to beat Sang Hyuk Woo at the Seiko Grand Prix in May.

Woo, who has personal bests of 2.36m indoors and 2.35m outdoors, has a personal best of 2.33m (tied for fourth) this season.

Woo has been focusing on stamina and strength training, gradually improving his ‘sense of practice’.

His second-place finish at the Tokyo Seiko Grand Prix on May 19 (2.27m) and fourth-place finish at the Taiwan Open on June 1 (2.22m) were also due to a lack of practice.

Woo said, “I competed in Tokyo and Taiwan with a heavy body. I went into the two competitions with the idea that if I could go over 2.30m with a heavy body, I could go over 2.37m with a lighter body, but my results were not as good as I expected.” “However, my training process was very good, and I didn’t feel any pain, so I wasn’t disappointed with the results of the two competitions. In the end, what matters is the result in Paris,” he explained.

With the men’s high jump final in Paris less than a month away, the Monaco Diamond League will be looking for more than a ‘record’.

He will be competing with the armband of the 2023 Diamond League Final champion (2.35 meters), so he is also eager to win.

After the Monaco Diamond League, Woo will travel to Paris to begin acclimatization training for the Olympics. 온라인카지노사이트