Spanovic takes her jumping to a new level

Serbian star elevates to world's No. 3 all-time performer, becomes sixth woman to repeat in long jump at European Indoor Championships in Belgrade

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Ivana Spanovic put on a show Sunday in front of her home crowd at the European Indoor Championships at Kombank Arena in Belgrade, Serbia.

The Serbian star and defending champion not only became the sixth woman to repeat in the long jump, but elevated to the world's No. 3 all-time indoor performer.

Spanovic produced a third-round jump of 23 feet, 9 inches (7.24m) (WATCH VIDEO HERE) to equal the No. 7 indoor jump in history. She also had marks of 23-6.25 (7.17m) and 23-6 (7.16m), both of which were well beyond her previous world-leading effort of 23-0.75 (7.03m) in Saturday's qualifying round.

"It was really important for me to perform well today," Spanovic told European Athletics. "I enjoyed every minute of competing in front of this home crowd. The people were amazing, and I am really glad that I could give them this gold medal."

Spanovic fell just short of the 1988 meet record of 23-11.50 (7.30m) set by Germany's Heike Drechsler. Only Drechsler – who holds the world indoor record at 24-2.25 (7.37m) – and Russia's Galina Chistyakova at 23-11.50 (7.30m) have produced better indoor jumps than Spanovic.

Spanovic, who won the 2015 title in Prague with a leap of 22-10.75 (6.98m), joins Jarmila Nygrynova of Czechoslovakia (1977-78), Portugal's Naide Gomes (2005 and 2007), Russia's Darya Klishina (2011 and 2013), along with Drechsler (1986-88) and Chistyakova (1989-90) as a repeat long jump champion in the meet's 34-year history.