'Even before I called my parents, I understood that this was war'

Yaroslava Mahuchikh is amongst the Ukrainian athletes competing at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikha

On the outskirts of Belgrade yesterday, on a cool and breezy afternoon, six Ukrainian athletes walked together to an opulent hotel – there to pick up their competition kit ahead of the World Athletics Indoor Championships.

At events like this, athletes usually have their national kit before they leave home, but of course nothing has been normal in these athletes’ lives for quite some time. Among them, smiling and joking with her teammate, was Yaroslava Mahuchikh, one of the brightest stars in athletics, a 20-year-old with an Olympic medal, World Championship medal and a personal best of 2.06m – which means she can jump the height of a door.

Mahuchikh was at home in Dnipro on 24 February when she awoke at 4:30am to the sounds of explosions. “Even before I called my parents, I understood that this was war,” she said. “I cannot describe in words what I felt at that moment, and I wish nobody in the world will have the same or even similar feelings.” 

Still, she found a way to keep training, and collaboration between World Athletics and the Ukrainian, Romanian and Serbian federations saw her make a three-day, 2,000km journey to Belgrade last week.

“Hundreds of phone calls, many changes of direction, explosions, fires, and air raid sirens,” she said. “I would like to think that it was just nightmarish dream, but this is the reality of getting anywhere in my country even today. This is the reality of the war.” 

Mahuchikh is favourite for gold in the women’s high jump final at 10:05am Irish time tomorrow. Absent from that event is Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene, along with every other athlete from Russia or Belarus, with World Athletics voting to sanction them with an indefinite ban this month and its President, Sebastian Coe, saying “sport has to step up and join these efforts to end this war and restore peace.” 

Coe struck an optimistic tone yesterday ahead of the event. “This is track and field, a sport that historically has understood and accepted the fragilities of the political landscape but has always come together in a cohesive way. I’m delighted that sport can show the healing power and bring well over 100 nations together. Sport will win through.” Among the stars here is Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, who should give the world record a major scare in Sunday’s pole vault final. Same goes for USA’s Ryan Crouser in the men’s shot put, and Venezuela’s astonishingly gifted Yulimar Rojas in the women’s triple jump.

The men’s 60m will see a showdown between world record holder Christian Coleman, back after an 18-month ban for missing drugs test, and Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, the Olympic 100m champion.

“The one who wins is the one who makes fewer mistakes,” said Jacobs. “Coleman will be the man to beat and I’ll try stay as close as possible to him and maybe dip ahead. The 60m is harder for me, with the way I run, but nothing is impossible.”