National record holder Bobby Aloysius crashed out in the preliminary round of the women's high jump at the Athens Games, failing to go over 1.89 metres.

The 30-year-old Indian cleared 1.75m and 1.80m on her first attempts before fumbling in the first attempt when the bar was raised by another five centimetres.

However, Bobby, who produced a career best and national record jump of 1.91m last month at Chennai to qualify for Athens, managed to clear 1.85m on her second attempt.

But once the height was increased to 1.89m, the Kerala lass failed on all three attempts and got eliminated from the final.

The automatic qualification mark to reach the final was 1.95m, else the top 12 would make it to the title round

Double world champion Hestrie Cloete flew into the final with a perfect display.

The South African, with her unique double-arm lift-off, cleared every jump up to the qualifying height of 1.95 metres by big margins.

Cloete won the World Championships last year without missing a jump on the way to 2.06m and gold.

The final is on Saturday.

Russian Yelena Slesarenko, Cloete's closest challenger this year after winning the world indoor title in March, missed one of six jumps to go through as well.

Croatia's former world junior champion Blanka Vlasic, whose season's best of 2.03 is one centimetre behind Cloete's and Slesarenko's joint leading world mark, had a tougher time.

Vlasic had a scare with two failures at her opening 1.85 and another at 1.89, shaking her head in frustration, before suddenly finding her form just in time.

The 20-year-old arrived in Athens with a virus and considered withdrawing because she felt so ill.