Freitag was delighted with his win
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Jacques Freitag beat Sweden's Stefan Holm to take high jump gold at the World Championships on Monday.
But the South African's winning height of 2.35m was the lowest since the inaugeral championships 20 years ago.
Holm and Canada's Mark Boswell both cleared 2.32m but Holm won silver because he required one attempt fewer to do so.
"I did not have a good start at all," said Freitag.
"We had a really tough qualifying competition and my legs were kind of numb. Then I began to slowly find my rhythm and it all came together for me."
High jump result:
1. Jacques Freitag (RSA) 2.35m
2. Stefan Holm (Swe) 2.32m
3. Mark Boswell (Can) 2.32m
4. Mikhail Tsvetkov (Rus) 2.29m
5. Jermaine Mason (Jam) 2.29m
6. Grzegorz Sposob (Pol) 2.29m
7. James Nieto (USA) 2.29m
8. Andriy Sokolovskyy (Ukr) 2.29m
9. Yaroslav Rybakov (Rus) 2.25m
10. Aleksander Walerianczyk (Pol) 2.25m