Skipped 2.02 meters
Jaroslava Mahuchich fled the war in Ukraine – and is now the world indoor champion in the high jump
Yaroslava Mahuchich of Ukraine celebrates with the national flag after winning the gold medal
© Darko Vojinovic/AP/DPA
On the first day of the Ukraine war, she was awakened by explosions and artillery fire. Then the Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslav Mauchich fled to the countryside and hid in a basement. After an odyssey to Serbia, she now has the world title in the high jump there.
The Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchich has secured the title at the World Indoor Championships in track and field. The Olympic bronze medalist crossed 2.02 meters in Belgrade on Saturday and won ahead of Australia’s Nicola McDermott. The Olympic silver medalist from last year in Tokyo mastered 2.00 meters. Irina Gerashchenko from Ukraine was fifth with 1.92 meters.
Mahuchich and Gerashchenko are part of the small Ukrainian contingent that has started in Belgrade despite the Russian attack on homeland. The winner, who had painted her fingernails in the colors of her country, wrapped herself in a yellow and blue flag and was celebrated by the Ukrainian team.
Yaroslava Mahuchich had doubts about her performance
Mahuchich had to experience the horrors of war himself. The journey from the Ukraine to Belgrade took three days – a journey of almost 2000 kilometers. She experienced “hundreds of phone calls, many changes of direction, explosions, fires and air raid sirens,” the association reports European Athletics (EA). On March 9th she reached the Serbian capital.
After her trip to Serbia, Mahuchich still had doubts about her ability to perform. “I even doubted that I could jump at all, but my trainer said I had to go out and perform in the form and fitness I had before the Russian invasion began,” Mahuchich said with the Ukrainian flag draped over her shoulders.
To the EA she reported on how she experienced the beginning of the Russian war of aggression. “It was February 24, 4:30 a.m. when I woke up in my apartment in the city of Dnipro to the terrible sounds of explosions, artillery fire and gunfire. Even before I called my parents, I knew this was war.” She couldn’t what she was feeling at that moment and wished “no one in the world would have the same or even similar feelings”.
The hell of Mariupol in pictures: rubble, ash and mass graves
10 images
“All my thoughts are in Ukraine and with all Ukrainians”
“After hours of total panic, we left our town and moved to a small village not far from home. Back then, nobody thought about training because we were forced to spend days in the basement,” said the 20-year-old. You always followed the news. A day later Mautschich resumed training.
“We were in contact with the Ukrainian athletics federations, with my manager Aivar Karotamm and his Ukrainian assistant Oleksandr Krykun, and we all looked for the best – safest – way to start training again and only then started to think about the chance to perform here in Belgrade.”
The trip to Belgrade was finally arranged together with World Athletics, the Romanian and Serbian athletics associations.
“All my thoughts are with Ukraine and with all Ukrainians who are now defending my fatherland, but I have to do the things I’m familiar with. I have to perform to represent Ukraine as best as possible in the international sports arena ‘ said the high jumper.