The great high jumper Mahuchikh was the star of EYOF 2017

The winner of the popular 27th Banskobystrická latka, which was watched by thousands fans around the World, became a young woman who also attracted attention of the sport world at the European Youth Olympic Festival.

The only nineteen-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh overcame a bar with a height of 206 cm in the hall, where in seventeen months’ time there will be a competition in one of the sports at EYOF 2022 for medals, becoming the fourth Ukrainian winner of the women’s competition.

VIDEO: Mahuchikh at BBL 2021

The teenager was in prolific form at the most prestigious high jump-only meeting on the indoor circuit. Mahuchikh cleared 2.01m and then an indoor lifetime best of 2.03m on her first attempts before asking the officials to raise the cross-bar to an outright Ukrainian record of 2.06m, a height that has only been cleared once indoors in the last decade.

After clearing 2.03m, Mahuchikh took a few minutes to mentally prepare herself for a height which would not only represent a national record but one of the highest ever jumps in history.

Approaching the bar with both speed and power, Mahuchikh propelled herself over 2.06m on her first attempt again, barely even grazing the cross-bar, before bounding over to her ecstatic long-time coach Tatiana Stepanova who was watching from the sidelines.

Mahuchikh’s clearance at 2.06m erased the long-standing Ukrainian record of 2.05m which was set by former world champion Inha Babakova in 1995.

Only Germany’s Heike Henkel and Sweden’s Kajsa Bergqvist have ever jumped higher indoors with 2.07m and 2.08m respectively.

‘First of all, I sincerely thank my coach Tatiana Stepanova. Without her, this result would not be possible. I went to Banská Bystrica, aiming to raise my personal best by one centimetre,’ said Mahuchikh.

‘After clearing 2.03m, I was already thinking about stopping, because this is our rule with the coach but then we decided to try to make at least one attempt at 2.06m and it was unbelievable! So far I can’t even believe that I succeeded.’

The Ukrainian attracted the attention of the sports world already in 2017. She came to the European Youth Olympic Festival in Györ as a fresh world champion under 18 years of age from Nairobi, where she overcame 192 cm at the age of fifteen and won with the clearest lead in the history of the championships. In Györ she was equally sovereign, her opponents were not even close to her. Already at that time she was referred to as a new high jump star. “I only came to Györ for the gold, I didn’t want to get anything else, after the triumph in Nairobi, no other metal came into consideration. It was a good season,” recalled Mahučichová, who was congratulated four years ago by the head of the Ukrainian National Committee and the legendary pole jumper Sergey Bubka at the EYOF venue.