European Athletics Championships Open Tomorrow in Birmingham
From tomorrow through August 16, Serbia fields 13 athletes at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. Spanovic opens in the triple jump, Topic follows in the high jump on Thursday.
A runway, a board, a sandpit and three jumps. Tomorrow at 20:55, Ivana Spanovic opens Serbia’s campaign at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, in the triple jump qualifiers, on the opening night of a competition that runs through August 16.
For her, it is still a discipline in progress. She has been training the triple jump for less than a year, and this past winter she set a national indoor record of 14.35 meters and finished sixth at the World Indoor Championships. Her outdoor season has been uneven: her best mark outdoors is 14.25, she jumped 14.08 at the Serbian Championships, and she arrives in Birmingham ranked fifth among European women this year. The final is Thursday from 20:40.
“My experience from the long jump is one thing, and this is something completely different now. Even though I am the oldest by age, I am practically the youngest if you look at how long I have been training the triple jump. We have polished the long jump technique to near perfection, while the triple jump is, frankly, laughable by comparison right now. That doesn’t discourage me, because I know how the process works and what it takes. The one thing about an unstable technique is that you can never be certain how realistic something is or when it becomes achievable. That’s why we take it one step at a time: first the qualifiers and a place among the top 12, then the final as a completely new competition,” Spanovic said.
That is also the most honest preview of her entire campaign. A woman who was a world and European champion in the long jump is still waiting for her first medal in the triple jump at a major championship.
Who Is Traveling to Birmingham
The Athletics Federation of Serbia published the team list on August 1. Thirteen athletes are making the trip, four men and nine women, and nearly every group of disciplines is covered except the middle and long distances.
The men’s team:
- Darijo Basic Palkovic, 200 meters
- Mihajlo Katanic, 400m hurdles
- Luka Boskovic, long jump
- Armin Sinancevic, shot put
The women’s team:
- Aleksandra Pesic, 400 meters
- Milica Emini, 100m hurdles
- Mina Stankovic, race walk, 21.097 kilometers
- Milica Gardasevic, long jump
- Ivana Spanovic and Aleksandrija Mitrovic, triple jump
- Angelina Topic, high jump
- Adriana Vilagos and Marija Vucenovic, javelin throw
Spanovic, Topic, Vilagos, Vucenovic and Boskovic met the qualifying standard outright. The other eight made the team through the world rankings, among the top 36 in track events and the top 30 in technical disciplines, a bar that leaves little room for error.
Interim head coach Zeljko Obradovic believes two or three medals would be a major success, but he declines to name candidates.
“I wouldn’t want to burden anyone with predictions. We have several athletes who have already stood on the podium at European Championships more than once,” Obradovic said.
Topic and the Two Meter Barrier
Angelina Topic cleared 2.00 meters for the first time in her career this season and set a national record, then won silver at the World Indoor Championships with 1.99. Some context is useful here: 2.00 meters was the gold medal height at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and 1.99 was the winning height at the 2025 European Indoor Championships. Among European women this year, only Yaroslava Mahuchih, at 2.03, has jumped higher than Topic.
“It seems to me the competition is stronger, results wise, than at the previous two European Championships I’ve competed in. I expect a tough fight for medals, since this is the biggest competition of the summer season,” Topic said.
High jump qualifying is Thursday, August 13, from 10:55, with the final on Saturday from 21:04. At 21, Topic already holds bronze from the 2022 outdoor European Championships and silver from 2024, so the question of gold comes up on its own. Her answer was short: sport doesn’t follow patterns, and she has no control over what her rivals do.
What Can Armin Sinancevic Realistically Achieve?
A final, above all, and that is an honest measure of his current form. Sinancevic’s best throw this season is 20.59 meters, a full 1.29 meters short of the 21.39 that won him European silver in Munich in 2022. His national record stands at 21.88, he finished seventh at the Tokyo Olympics, and at 29 he carries finals from four major championships into this one.
“This season’s result doesn’t fully reflect what I’m capable of right now. I faced certain challenges during preparation, but I believe in the work I’ve done,” Sinancevic said ahead of the trip.
He also named the lesson he took from Munich: that at major championships, composure, concentration and self belief decide everything.
A Schedule for Serbian Fans
The triple jump is first up, with qualifying tomorrow from 20:55 and the final on Thursday from 20:40. The high jump runs Thursday morning, then Saturday evening. Mina Stankovic’s half marathon race walk has no qualifying round, she goes straight into the race for medals, and it’s an event that usually gets overlooked back home.
This is the strongest team Serbia has sent to a summer European Championships in years, and also the least predictable: the three most serious medal contenders arrive with a season that hasn’t gone according to plan. My estimate is that two medals are realistic, and a third would mean one of the throwers found their day. The first answer comes tomorrow at 20:55.
