Spanovic Eighth in Triple Jump Final After Traffic Delay
The women's triple jump final in Birmingham started 35 minutes late after traffic kept competitors from reaching the stadium. Spanovic warmed up on the bus and finished eighth with 14.06 meters.
The bus was stuck on the highway to Birmingham, and time before the first jump of the triple jump final was running out fast. Inside were Ivana Spanovic and her coach Goran Obradovic, and neither could do anything but wait for the traffic to move.
“First there was a crash on the highway, then another one on the road we took to get off it. I hope we make it,” Obradovic said while they were still on the road.
A short while later came news that sounded better, though it showed just how tight things had become.
“The latest word is that we’re arriving with barely any time to spare, Ivana is warming up on the bus!” the coach reported.
The trip to the stadium took more than two hours. Warmup, the part of preparation athletes normally do on the track and in the runway area, this time took place between the seats.
Why the final started 35 minutes late
Organizers pushed the start of the women’s triple jump final from 20:40 to 21:15 on Thursday, August 13, because competitors caught in traffic could not reach the stadium in time. Spanovic was not the only one stuck on the road.
What that meant became clear in the first round. Six athletes fouled, the Serbian among them. In the triple jump, a discipline where everything is measured from the board and the run-up rhythm has to be rehearsed down to the centimeter, a skipped warmup shows up on the first attempt.
Round by round
After the foul in round one, Spanovic landed a valid jump of 14.06 meters in round two. It turned out to be her best mark of the night.
In round three she reached 13.95 and had to wait for the rest of the round to find out if she would advance, since only the top eight continue with three more attempts. She made the cut. In round four she reached 14.04 meters, her fifth jump was wiped out by another foul, and her last attempt stopped at 13.55 meters. A wind that kept shifting direction made things harder for everyone in the sector.
Gold went to Italy’s Derkac with 14.60 meters, the best European mark of the season. Silver went to Belgium’s Gise with 14.46, and bronze to Bulgaria’s Nacheva with 14.40 meters. Spanovic finished eighth.
Qualifying told a different story
She had reached the final the most direct way possible. In qualifying she met the standard on her first attempt, with 14.21 meters, while the qualifying mark stood at 14.15. Afterward we wrote that she was going for a medal that evening, and at the time that was a fully realistic calculation.
Her best triple jump result this season is 14.41 meters. The gap between that number and the 14.06 she produced in the final is 35 centimeters, exactly what separated eighth place from a podium finish.
Spanovic is 36 years old with 15 medals from major championships, all of them in the long jump, the event where she has been world champion, European champion and an Olympic bronze medalist. The triple jump is a new chapter for her, and Birmingham was her first attempt to reach a medal in that discipline at a major championship.
An eighth place finish 35 centimeters below her season best does not say much about her form. It says more about an evening that fell apart before the first jump was even made. The real measure of her triple jump will come at a competition she actually reaches on time.
