It was a day to remember for Ukraine at their under-18 international with Belarus and Türkiye in Lutsk.
Memorable in that they triumphed and memorable, too, for the celebrations at the venue in the presence of the country’s greatest athlete, pole vault legend Sergey Bubka.
Their renovated Avanhard Stadium has been certified as a Class 2 athletics facility by the IAAF and their vice-president Bubka handed the certification to Oleksandr Tovsteniuk, chairman of the executive board of the 'Tilky Razom' Igor Palytsia Foundation
Bubka unveiled a memorial plaque from Ukraine’s Olympic family on the façade of the stadium and praised the foundation for their contribution in sport's development in the Volyn region.
“Everybody should follow their examples,” said Bubka. “Igor Palytsia and his foundation have created very good conditions for competition and training in Lutsk. They built new stadiums in small towns as well. Due to their activity we could find many talents and future athletics stars.”
Hammer thrower Mykhaylo Havrylyuk and high jumper Dmytro Nikitin, both 16, are already tremendous Ukrainian prospects as they proved last summer by winning silver at the world under-18 championships in Cali.
But while Havrylyuk was successful here with 79.73m from fellow Ukrainian Mykhaylo Kokhan (72.37m), Belarusian Aleksandr Kiseliov beat Niktin on countback at 2.05m.
One of the best track performances came from Türkiye’s Mizgin Ay who ran a fine 100m in 11.79. It was 0.15 inside the old national youth best but there was a wind reading of +2.8.
Ukraine won the match with 190 points from Belarus (149) and Türkiye (86), who did not have a maximum number of athletes in each event.
Ihor Hotsul, President of the Ukrainian Athletic Federation, said: “It was great competition and wonderful organisation. I can’t wait to come back to Lutsk in June for the national championships.”