Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh claimed the European high jump title for the third consecutive time, clearing 1.97m to take gold at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships on Saturday (15).
In summary
- The Ukrainian repeated her wins from Munich 2022 and Rome 2024
- Poland’s Maria Żodzik jumped 1.95m took silver in a repeat placing from last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo
- Montenegro's Marija Vukovic was third on countback
It seems extraordinary that Mahuchikh does not even turn 25 until next month and she has now secured 10 major titles.
The reigning Olympic champion had, by her own elevated standards, an indifferent season in 2025 as her world title slipped away but this was the Ukrainian leaping at her confident best, putting her rivals under pressure from the moment she entered the fray and cleared 1.92 metres with her very first attempt.
By that stage, only four others remained in contention. Żodzik, admirably, held her nerve after two failures at 1.83m to move onwards. Germany’s Christina Honsel survived similar jeopardy at 1.88m. But in pairs the challengers faded away until only the world record holder remained.
Iryna Gerashchenko, bronze medallist in Rome in 2024 and on the return from maternity leave, joined Honsel in exiting at 1.95m. With the podium invitees identified, Żodzik and Vukovic went over 1.95 with Mahuchikh needing two attempts to move on.
But the Ukrainian breezed over 1.97m without delay and her remaining rivals could not, with Vukovic forced to settle for silver on the tie-breaker of a missed first try at 1.95m.
Mahuchikh attempted 2.01m – just two centimetres below her season’s best – but while she flirted with rising above on by far the coldest evening of the championships, the bar fell three times and she could celebrate instead.
What they said
Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR)
"This is my third title. Every medal is very important for me now and these three medals I won for my country. My first one was in Munich 2022 and it was the first year of the war. So every medal is now important for me because I am representing Ukraine, the beautiful country with cool people - I want to return us to happy times. And I just hope they get hope from my gold medal."
Maria Zodzik (POL)
"The competition was affected by the cold conditions and I could not find my proper run-up from the beginning. But then I managed to get used to it and it was going well. This shows that my medal at the world championships in Tokyo was not just coincidence. It proves that I can jump high and fight."
Marija Vukovic (MNE)
"The last two years were really hard, especially after surgery, but I believed and I worked for it. The medal just came as a reward of that. I'm not that young, so I know from experience that I have good jumps in my legs and I wanted to show that. The weather wasn't that great for better jumps but I think I handled it well."