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High-jump queen Blanka Vlasic retained her world crown when she saw off arch-rival and local favourite Ariane Friedrich to win gold at the World Championships in Berlin.

Vlasic was the only athlete to clear 2.04 metres in the electric atmosphere of Berlin's Olympic stadium while Russia's Anna Chicherova took the silver with a season's best 2.02m to leave Germany's Friedrich with the bronze on count back.

It was another battle royale between Friedrich and Vlasic, who has now leveled the series at 3-3 since the German famously beat her in Brussels last season to deny the world champion a share of the one million dollar Golden League jackpot.

Since then Friedrich has beaten Vlasic at both the European Indoor championships in March as well as Berlin's Golden League meet in June, so this was sweet revenge for the double world champion.

Vlasic had to battle her way into the final here after picking up six stitches from the head injury she suffered in a freak accident while warming up for Tuesday morning's qualification.

Having missed out on Olympic gold to Belgium's Tia Hellebaut, Vlasic had to choke back the tears after Friedrich's failed attempt to clear 2.06m gave her gold as she retained her world crown from Osaka two years ago.

Friedrich had begun the competition by electing to pass on the opening height of 1.85m, but then breezed over the bar at 1.92m.

Chicherova, who claimed the bronze medal at last August's Beijing Olympic Games, was the first athlete to clear 2.02m to throw down the gauntlet to Vlasic and Friedrich.

Vlasic showed perfect technique to clear the height at the second time of asking, but her German rival clipped the bar on both of her first two attempts.

She exploded with a primal scream when she cleared at the third attempt to stay in the fight for the gold medal as the crowd roared their approval.

All three rivals got nowhere near clearing 2.04m on their first attempts.

Friedrich took off far too early on her second attempt, but Vlasic piled the pressure on her German rival by clearing at the second time of asking.

Chicherova then failed to clear 2.04 on her third attempt to go out.

With everything hanging on her final jump, Friedrich had the bar raised to 2.06m and with total silence in the stadium looked to have cleared until she clipped the bar with her heel.

Her mistake handed Vlasic the gold and the Croat then opted to attempt to jump 2.10m in a bid to break Stefka Kostadinova's 22-year-old world record of 2.09m, but she was nowhere near with any of her three tries.

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AFP