Ukrainian high jumper clears 2.01m to beat Nicola Olyslagers, Angelina Topic and Yuliya Levchenko on the opening day in Toruń.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh won the European indoor title in Toruń as a teenager in 2021 and on Friday (March 20) returned to the arena to win her second world indoor gold.
The 24-year-old was the only athlete to clear 2.01m as Nicola Olyslagers of Australia, Angelina Topic of Serbia and Yuliia Levchenko of Ukraine were all tied for the silver medal position with first-time clearances at 1.99m.
After a frustrating 2025 where she won ‘only’ world indoor and outdoor bronze medals, Mahuchikh returned to her native Ukraine to train this winter for the first time since war broke out. The routine has clearly worked for her too.
She followed her winning leap with three unsuccessful attempts at a championship record of 2.06m.
“Before Toruń, I had already collected the full set of world indoor medals but, coming here, I realised how I’m hungry for the gold one,” said Mahuchikh.
“I started my successful senior career in this arena in 2021 but today I had a different feeling. Torun is the city where many Ukrainians moved after the war was started in our country but I was really surprised how many fans came here to support me.
“It was amazing. They gave me a lot of energy and motivation to raise the bar higher even though I’d already won the gold.”
Olyslagers, the reigning champion, said: “The competition was amazing. I cannot remember the last time we had something like that, with four girls clearing 1.99m on their first attempt.”