Eleanor Patterson best high jump prospect in 30 years IN sport, statistics don't lie. And statistically, 17-year-old Victorian country girl Eleanor Patterson is the best female high jump prospect that the world has seen for almost 30 years. The world youth champion blasted into the sporting stratosphere at the Australian All Schools Championships in Townsville at the weekend, leaping an astonishing 1.96m, or six feet five inches in the old measure.