Yelena Slesarenko upset red-hot favourite Hestrie Cloete in the high jump as the Russian added Olympic gold to her World Indoor title.

The 22-year-old from Volgograd set a new Olympic record of 2.06metres to win the final by four centimetres, breaking the eight-year-old Games best, held by Stefka Kostadinova, by 1cm.

South African Cloete had to settle for the silver medal, which she won on countback from Ukrainian Viktoriya Styopina.

Both athletes had cleared 2.02m, but Viktoriya had the most failures at lower heights and was pushed down to third.

Slesarenko said: "I didn't know that I was going to win here today.

"I came in full of hope and I achieved my goal.

"The competition was hard but Cloete helped me jump better by jumping so well. I would like to thank my coach who helped me tremendously."

Dignified in defeat, Cloete was happy just to secure second place.

The world's top-ranked jumper said: "I am actually really happy about the silver. There were about five others who could have done it, too."