Ukrainian Bohdan Bondarenko and Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim became the first high-jumpers in two decades to clear 2.42m Saturday at the New York Diamond League athletics meeting.
Bondarenko, the 2013 world champion, won the event, clearing 2.42 on his first attempt.
Barshim, runner-up to Bondarenko at the Moscow world championships last year and winner of the indoor world title earlier this year, also cleared 2.42m on his first try at the height, but not before taking three attempts to clear 2.35m.
The last high jumper to clear 2.42m was world record-holder Javier Sotomayor on June 5, 1994. The now-retired Cuban set the world mark of 2.45 on July 27, 1993.
With the competition decided, both Bondarenko and Barshim made unsuccessful attempts at 2.46m — Bondarenko taking three stabs at a world record leap to no avail.
But for European Bondarenko, his 2.42 clearance equalled the continental record of Sweden’s Patrik Sjoberg, set in June of 1987.