Track Beauty of the Week: Noengrothai Chaipetch หนึ่งฤทัย ไชยเพชร

Noengrothai Chaipetch หนึ่งฤทัย ไชยเพชร is this week’s track beauty!

A veteran of two Olympics and the 2009 Berlin World Championships, Chaipetch is Thailand’s ace high jumper. With a personal best of 1.94m, the 28-year old belongs to the very best of the Asian region. Chaipetch’s most recent achievement is winning the gold at the 2009 Laos SEA Games. She cleared 1.94m in her third and final attempt to wrest the regional title.

Photos from Channel News Asia and Daylife.com

The Thai sailed above 1.90m in 2004 for the first time. She notched a then lifetime’s best of 1.91m in Bangkok. Chaipetch made her major championship debut the same year at the Athens Olympics, crashing out of the qualifying rounds with a best clearance of 1.89m. In the succeeding years,  her performance seemed to have hit a plateau. From 2005 to 2007, the Thai proved unable to better 1.86m – a height which she cleared five times in the said time span.

Chaipetch finally broke free from the 1.86m quicksand in 2008, when she set a new personal best of 1.92m a month before the Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately, the Thai underperformed in Beijing (1.80m, 15th in qualifying). She improved significantly at the Berlin World Championships the next year, but her 1.89m clearance was only good enough for 14th place in qualifying.

Additional Links:

Universal Sports article on Chaipetch’s 1.94m leap

More action shots (Gettyimages.com)

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