Early birds will catch the gold this Wednesday

LEONGATHA’S Eleanor Patterson and her teammate, Nicola Olyslagers, go into Wednesday morning’s Commonwealth Games’ women’s high jump final as the in-form favourites in the field.

The pair placed first and second in the most recent Diamond League meet in London on Saturday, July 18, Olyslagers with the season’s best jump of 2.01 metres and Patterson with a very creditable 1.96 metres, enough to equal the Commonwealth Games record.

Olyslagers narrowly bettered Eleanor’s own season record-setting leap last month when she cleared 2.00 metres to win the Tage der Uberflieger competition in Essen, Germany, her first two metre jump since winning the world championships in America in 2022.

The final will be staged on Tuesday evening Glasgow time but at a mind-numbing 4.05am on Wednesday morning (AEST), July 29 Australian time.

It is expected that Olyslagers and Patterson will finish 1-2 in the event and to contribute some world-class performances along the way in what will be their major outing for the year ahead of the world championship in China in 2027.

With both Aussies in fine form, it will be the athlete who has the best day on the runway who’ll come away with the gold.

“Either way, we’ve got this,” said Olyslagers in a Channel 7 interview on Sunday night.