World high jump record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh regained the world indoor title she last won in 2022 with a brilliant performance in Kujawy-Pomorze on Friday (20).
The 24-year-old slipped slightly from her lofty heights last year, winning world bronze both indoors and outdoors in Nanjing and Tokyo, respectively. However, she did triumph at the European Athletics Indoor Championships for the third successive occasion, claiming gold in Apeldoorn.
The Ukrainian now looks close to being back to her best after her victory in Poland, the site of her first senior title at the Torun 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
First-time clearances as opposition falters
She was the last to enter the competition, opening with a first-time clearance at 1.93m—a feat she repeated at 1.96m and 1.99m.
At that stage, Australia’s world champion Nicola Olyslagers, Serbia’s Angelina Topić—who shared world bronze with Mahuchikh last year—and fellow Ukrainian Yuliia Levchenko, the 2017 world silver medallist, also had perfect records.
Olyslagers and Topić both opened at 1.89m, while Levchenko began her campaign at 1.85m.
The decisive moment came when the bar was raised to 2.01m. While her rivals faltered and each failed all three attempts, Mahuchikh cleared it on her first try to secure a well-deserved gold—her first world title since winning outdoors in Budapest in 2023.
Silver was shared between Olyslagers, Topić and Levchenko.
Mahuchikh made three further attempts to set a new championship record of 2.06m, but had to settle for her fourth global senior title and regaining her status as the world's leading women's high jumper.
"Hungry for gold"
"Before Torun, I had already collected the full set of world indoor medals but, coming here, I realised how I'm hungry for the gold one,” Mahuchikh said afterwards.
“I started my successful senior career in this arena in 2021 but today I had a different feeling. Torun is the city where many Ukrainians moved after the war was started in our country but I was really surprised how many fans came here to support me.
“It was amazing. They gave me a lot of energy and motivation to raise the bar higher even though I'd already won the gold."
