The most anticipated final of the hosts of the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia was the women’s long jump.
The world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic-Vuleta from the previous championship in Birmingham, Great Britain in 2018 was the hosts’ superstar for Sunday evening.
The 31-year-old Serbian did not disappoint the thousands of fans. Ivana Spanovic-Vuleta started with a foul, but in the second attempt, she topped the standings with 6.89 m. In the fourth attempt, the best athlete in Serbia recorded the best result in the world for the year with 7.06 m.
That was more than enough for the gold, and all the spectators in Stark Arena stand up to congratulate the two-time world indoor champion.
Nigerian Ese Brume recorded 6.85 m for the silver medal, and Lorraine Ugen (UK) was inches behind her for bronze with 6.82 m. Both achieved these results in the third round of the competition.
Americans Tiffany Flynn (6.78 m) and Quanesha Burks (6.77 m) were in the medal standings after the first two attempts, but could not improve their results and finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
One of Ivana Spanovic-Vuleta‘s most serious competitors – the Ukrainian Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk recorded 6.73 m for the sixth place, and in the fifth attempt she landed within 6.90 m, but with a minimal foul. Hours earlier, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk won the silver medal in the triple jump with a personal record of 14.74 m.
Five years ago, Ivana Spanovic-Vuleta won the European title in Belgrade in the same hall with a score of 7.24 m, which is still the third achievement of all time.
The medals’ collection of the Athletic Queen of Serbia already includes a bronze Olympic medal (Rio 2016), two bronze medals at the World Outdoor Championships (Moscow 2013 and Beijing 2015), two world indoor titles (Birmingham 2018 and Belgrade 2022), and two more medals from this forum – silver (Portland 2016) and bronze (Sopot 2014), European outdoor title (Amsterdam 2016) and three in the hall (Prague 2015, Belgrade 2017 and Glasgow 2019).
