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Igor Paklin's major breakthrough in his high jumping career came just a
month before his 20th birthday, with a massive improvement of his
personal best to 2.33m at Tashkent, on 15 May 1983. Later that year, he
won the gold medal at the World University Games in Edmonton and placed
equal fourth at the World Championships in Helsinki. On 4 September
1985, Paklin successfully defended his World University Games title at
Kobe, but with considerably more fanfare than his first triumph, as his
winning jump was a new world record of 2.41m. Not surprisingly, all
eyes were on the new world record holder when he competed at the World
Cup in Canberra the following month, but he could only clear 2.25m, and
finished in fourth place.
It was a different story at the 1986 European
Championships in Stuttgart on 31 August, where Paklin's 2.31m first
time clearance was enough to win the gold medal, but he jumped 2.34m
just for good measure. The following week at Rieti, he cleared 2.38m,
the highest jump in the world that year. Igor won the gold medal at the
1987 World Indoor Championships after a protracted competition. Both
he and compatriot Gennadiy Avdeyenko had perfect records up to 2.38m,
but they then both failed at 2.40m. Forced into a jump-off for the
gold, they both failed at 2.38m, before Paklin sealed the victory with a
2.36m clearance. At the World Championships later that year in Rome,
on 6 September, Paklin was one of three athletes who cleared 2.38m (see photo above),
but this time he finished equal second based on the number of missed
attempts.
That was the end of Paklin's major successes, and in his last
major international appearances, he finished equal 7th at the 1988
Olympics, and equal 10th at the 1991 World Championships. (Ron Casey)
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