The Glasgow 2014 gold medallist is finding form ahead of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games later this month.

Australian high-jumper Eleanor Patterson has leapt to a morale-boosting victory at the Diamond League meet in Stockholm, meaning she can fly with confidence to the world championships.

Patterson soared to 1.96m to beat Ukrainian rivals Yuliya Levchenko and Iryna Gerashchenko (both 1.93m) on Thursday.

It was tough going for Patterson who needed three jumps to clear 1.93m in her season-opening event, but it was just the tonic she needed for the world titles at Eugene, Oregon, in a fortnight.

“It wasn’t my best preparation for today with a bit of a niggle picked up in the warm up at a previous Diamond League event, so to come away with the win on my season opener is great,” Patterson said.

“I fly to America now for a training base in Seattle with the Australian team to acclimatise.

“As Australians we are away from home for a long time during the year which is why I decided to make a later start to my season. I can fly there with confidence now after this evening.”

The world championships is the first of two major assignments for Patterson, with the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham to follow at the end of the month.

“After Oregon I have the Commonwealth Games which I love as that was my first international competition,” Patterson said.

“I then will return to the Diamond League aiming to make the finals. That will be difficult because of starting late but the Diamond League is where it’s at.”

The men’s 100m race was robbed of its biggest name when Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, who was due to make his first Diamond League start of the season, pulled out due to injury.

In his absence, South Africa’s Akani Simbine cruised to victory in a time of 10.02 seconds, with Australia’s Rohan Browning finishing seventh in 10.38 secs.

Swedish Olympic champion Armand Duplantis set an outdoor pole vault record of 6.16 metres, breaking his previous best of 6.15 but four centimetres short of his world record , set indoors, of 6.20m.

The 22-year-old soared to an easy victory in the competition before having the bar set at 6.16, and he cruised over it at the second attempt to delight the home crowd.

Dominic Lobalu set the best time of the season with a blistering spurt on the home straight to win the men’s 3,000m in a time of 7:29.48, seven-hundreths of a second ahead of Jacob Kiplimo.

Australia’s Stewart McSweyn (7:31:93) finished fourth while Jack Rayner (7:47:62) ran a personal best for his ninth place.

Catriona Bisset (1:58:54) came third in the women’s 800m that was taken out by Kenyan Mary Moraa in 1:57:68.

Filip Sasinek of the Czech Republic took out the men’s 1500m in 3:36:56, where Australian Matthew Ramsden finished fourth in 3:37:05.

Femke Bol set a Diamond League record in the women’s 400m hurdles, blazing away from the rest of the field to win in a time of 50.27.

Alison Dos Santos of Brazil crushed the field to win the men’s 400m hurdles in a time of 46.80, becoming the first man to break the 47-second barrier this season.