ⓒYONHAP News

South Korean high jumper Woo Sang-hyeok won the silver medal at the world championships, coming the closest to claiming South Korea’s first outdoor championship title in track and field.

Woo finished as the runner-up to Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim at the World Athletics Championships in the U.S. state of Oregon on Monday, matching his own national record of two-point-35 meters set at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with a fourth-place finish.

Barshim, one of the two 2020 Olympic gold medalists, succeeded in jumping two-point-37 meters in the first round, becoming the first-ever jumper to win three championship titles.

Woo, who became the first South Korean to win a title at the indoor world championships with a record of two-point-34 meters in March this year, has also now become the second South Korean to win an outdoor championship medal after race walker Kim Hyun-sub.

Kim, who initially finished sixth in the men's 20-kilometer race at the 2011 Daegu championships, moved up to bronze after the three podium-finishing Russians were all disqualified for failing doping tests.