Ukraine’s Alina Shukh broke Carolina Kluft’s long-standing world under-20 indoor pentathlon record last Friday and the 17-year-old looks set to make her senior championship debut at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade from 3-5 March.
Shukh was one of the stars of last year’s inaugural European Athletics U18 Championships in Tbilisi where she defeated Austria’s rising star Sarah Lagger for the heptathlon title - and for the world U18 best - with a tally of 6186 points.
And in her first multi-event competition since bagging gold in the Georgian capital, Shukh eclipsed Kluft’s pentathlon mark by fifteen points with a total of 4550 points to win at the Ukrainian Team Championships in Zaporizhzhya.
[VIDEO src='1280655' align='right']
Not only was that mark a world U20 record, it also puts Shukh top of the world rankings. It could also prove sufficient to secure an invitation to compete in the pentathlon in Belgrade where she could face Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam, who is due to open her indoor season in a three-event competition in Paris on 8 February.
“I want to perform there very much. I like to compete with senior athletes. It should be a great experience for the rest of my athletics career,” said Shukh on competing at the upcoming Euro Indoors.
But before a potential trip to the Kombank Arena at the start of March, Shukh will line up in the European Athletics Indoor Permit Combined Events Meeting in Lasnamae, Estonia on Saturday.
Despite being the second youngest competitor in the field, Shukh’s recently set lifetime best makes her the highest scorer in the line-up by over 200 points.
[FACEBOOK ID='https://www.facebook.com/WorldAthleticsClub/photos/a.113501818698664.9161.108930319155814/1236299119752256/?type=3&theater']