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Brigetta Barrett wins silver for USA in Olympic high jump

By Kevin Zimmerman
Presswire

Arizona's Brigetta Barrett won the silver medal in the 2010 Olympic high jump event, setting a personal best mark of 6 feet, 8 inches (2.03 meters).

The Wildcat star fell to gold medal winner Anna Chicherova, who finished off the rest of the women's high jump field with a leap of 6 feet, 8.75 inches (2.05m). The Russian was the favorite coming into the final, as she and American Chaunte Lowe were the two jumpers that had better high marks than Barrett during the year.

Barrett only needed a jump of 6 feet, 4 inches in the semifinal to reach Saturday's final. And in the final, she eclipsed her former best jump of 2.01 meters, which she had set in Eugene, Ore., at this past season's NCAA Track and Field Championships.

Russia's Svetlana Shkolina was just short of Barrett. She won the bronze medal with a similar 2.03m jump but needed the third and final try to clear the bar. Barrett completed her last jump on her second try -- she had one miss in each of her last three successful jumps -- but couldn't get the extra 3/4 of an inch needed to keep up with Chicherova, who only recorded a miss on the first try of that final height.

Just 21-years-old, Barrett now stands as the future for USA's high jumping team. Lowe, the only other American in the final, is 28 and disappointed with a sixth-place finish.

As for Arizona Wildcats Olympians, the medal count now stands at four, which is good for sixth in the Pac-12 Conference as of yesterday's numbers added up over at Pacific Takes.

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