World Athletics Championships: Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh wins silver after escaping her war-torn country

New Delhi: Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh brought some good news to her war-torn country as she won the silver medal in the Women’s High Jump at World Athletics Championship in Oregon. Her fellow teammate Iryna Gerashchenko stood 4th in the high jump event. Mahuchikh won a silver in the last World Championships held in Doha in 2019, apart from that she won a bronze at Tokyo Olympics.

Mahuchikh and Gerashchenko tied for first place with three other jumpers in the qualification round, having jumped 1.93 m. The finals started with a 1.84 m mark and Mahuchikh sailed smoothly till the 2 m mark. On the other hand, Australia’s Eleanor Patterson, who won the gold, struggled a bit at the 1.98 m mark. Mahuchikh, Patterson and Gerashchenko jumped off the 2 m mark in their second attempts, while Italy’s Elena Vallortigara did it in her first. These were the only four jumpers competing for the 2.02 m mark.

While Patterson jumped the 2.02 m in her first attempt, Mahuchikh did it in her second. They went on to compete in the 2.04 m jump, but both of them failed to do a legal jump there. As a result, Patterson was awarded the gold medal, Mahuchikh won the silver and Vallortigara won the bronze.

It was an emotional achievement for the jumper as she participated in the event after escaping her hometown of Dnipro, which had come under attack by Russia. According to the Associated Press, Gerashchenko was sheltering in her parents’ basement for about a week and then she left for her training without spikes and trained for a time in tennis shoes.

Mahuchikh’s medal came a night after her fellow teammate Andriy Protsenko won a bronze in Men’s High Jump. A total of 22 athletes from Ukraine are participating in various track and field events at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. They have trained in different countries after they managed to escape their war-torn country. Mahuchikh was training in California after being in Serbia, Germany and Turkey.