Less than four months after clearing 2.04m at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed sole ownership of the world indoor U20 record on her season’s debut at the Demyanyuk Memorial in Lviv on Saturday (19).
Mahuchikh equalled the world indoor U20 record of 1.99m during the last indoor season and the 18-year-old reached that height without too many difficulties this afternoon. She cleared 1.86m, 1.89m and 1.95m on her first attempts before clearing 1.99m on her second attempt to match the record.
This competition was more of an exhibition as Mahuchikh’s nearest rival bowed out of contention at 1.86m. The world silver medallist had the sector all to herself for the next hour and after clearing 1.99m on her second attempt, Mahuchikh then raised the bar up to a prospective world indoor U20 record of 2.01m.
Mahuchikh almost cleared this height on her second attempt and she was just about to celebrate the record clearance when the bar wobbled off the upright. But Mahuchikh regained her focus for the third attempt, giving the bar the merest of brushes before bounding to the sidelines to celebrate her latest success with her long-time coach Tatiana Stepanova.
Not only did Mahuchikh add two centimetres to the world indoor U20 record, she also tied the long-standing national indoor record set by Vita Palamar at the 2008 World Indoor Championships. Mahuchikh also moves ahead of Inga Babakova - one of the all-time greats of the event - on the Ukrainian indoor all-time list.
Mahuchikh also eclipsed the world indoor lead held by teammate Yuliya Levchenko at 2.00m. The pair are due to meet for the first time this season in Cottbus on 29 January.
Mahuchikh's three 2.00m-plus competitions
2.04m World Championships, Doha (30 September 2019)2.01m Demyanyuk Memorial, Lviv (18 January 2020)
2.00m Stanford Diamond League (30 June 2019)