Derek Drouin wins gold in Olympic high jump

By Benjamin Blum, CBC Sports

Derek Drouin won gold in high jump at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday, bringing Canada's medal total to 14.

The 26-year-old from Corunna, Ont., was perfect through six attempts, winning with a season-best height of 2.38 metres.

After taking a single run at 2.40 metres and missing, in an attempt to break the Olympic record of 2.39, an emotional Drouin held up the Canadian flag, tearing up as he faced his parents and his sisters in the stands.

"It was certainly a really stressful lead up. Four months ago, probably less, I was told I shouldn't keep jumping this season," Drouin told CBC's Adrienne Arsenault.

"But obviously I made some good decisions, it was some stressful times, and it felt like at that point I had nothing to lose and was able to approach the last couple months pretty much stress-free."

Drouin is the first Canadian male to win gold at the Rio Games. He's also the first Canadian to win gold in the high jump since Duncan McNaughton at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles.

"We've had a pretty good tradition in high jump, so myself and my teammates are just trying to keep re-writing it," Drouin said.

Mutaz Barshim of Qatar won silver at 2.36 and Ukraine's Bohdan Bondarenko claimed bronze at 2.33.

Bondarenko's risky strategy didn't pay off. He passed at 2.29 and 2.36 and tried to put pressure on Drouin at 2.38.

But Drouin cleared his first attempt at that height and Bondarenko missed his first two. The Ukrainian then took his last attempt at 2.40 and missed, giving Drouin his second Olympic medal.

"It doesn't matter that I was world champion coming in today," Drouin said. "In my eyes, everyone was on even playing ground right from the start."

"The pressure that maybe other people felt for me I certainly wasn't internalizing."

The gold is Canada's third track and field medal in Rio and the first track gold since Donovan Bailey in 1996. Brianne Theisen-Eaton won bronze in the heptathlon, while Andre De Grasse raced to bronze in the 100 metres.

Drouin, whose bronze was Canada's only track and field medal four years ago in London, arrived in Rio in top form. He jumped 2.38 metres in his last meet before the Olympics, in Germany, the second best jump of his career, and just shy of his Canadian record of 2.40.

With files from The Canadian Press