Angelina Topic Finishes 12th in Birmingham, Cold Decisive
Angelina Topic cleared 183 centimeters, then missed 188 three times. Two days earlier, in 36 degree heat, she cleared every height in qualifying on her first try.
A thick blanket over her shoulders, several layers of clothing, pacing in circles next to the mat just to keep her legs warm. That is how Angelina Topic spent most of Saturday evening at Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, where the high jump final started at 21:05 and the track was roughly ten degrees colder than anyone in the Serbian camp had planned for.
The first height went by calmly. 183 centimeters cleared on the first attempt. Then came 188, and that was where the evening closed out: three attempts, three times the bar came down on the mat, and a 12th place finish at the continental championship for a jumper who arrived in England as the reigning European silver medalist.
Two days earlier, that same runway had looked like her territory. Qualifying was held in 36 degree heat, and Topic cleared all four heights on her first attempt, including 191 centimeters, advancing to the final without a single miss.
Gold went to Ukraine’s Jaroslava Mahucik, who cleared 197 centimeters and claimed her third straight European title. The podium looked like this:
- gold, Jaroslava Mahucik, Ukraine, 197 cm
- silver, Maria Zodzik, Poland
- bronze, Marija Vukovic, Montenegro
Mahucik also cleared both 183 and 188 along the way, the same two heights where the Serbian competitor’s night fell apart.
What Topic said after the final
Her first comments to reporters, given to Sportklub, came without any hedging.
“Today just wasn’t my day. I believe my body is absolutely ready right now to clear jumps over two meters, but I couldn’t hold up under today’s conditions, and that’s entirely my own fault,” Topic said.
The word that kept coming back in that statement was not form. It was temperature.
Why did the cold take such a toll?
The high jump is not run, it is waited through. Minutes pass between attempts while the body cools down, and the run-up and takeoff depend on a leg that knows exactly where the ground is. She described what was left of that feeling by the end.
“I froze, I couldn’t feel my legs, I was shaking the whole time, I lost my coordination, and I couldn’t warm up,” the Serbian athlete said.
She had not skipped preparing for the cold, by her own account.
“I did everything within my power, I put on several layers of clothing, I brought a thick blanket, I kept trying to move the whole time to hold my temperature, but I honestly wasn’t ready for it to be this cold,” she said.
What came next is rarely heard from an athlete who has just missed out on a medal.
“I don’t want to use that as an excuse, because the same conditions applied to every competitor, the fault is entirely mine. I still haven’t processed what happened, I assume the worst is still ahead of me… That’s it, I’m not going to look for excuses. Even if I had kept competing, I don’t think much would have changed, because that wasn’t me out there,” Topic concluded.
The streak that ended in Birmingham
Before Birmingham, the run had gone only upward: bronze in Munich in 2022, silver in Rome in 2024, then bronze at the World Championships in 2025. She remains fourth on the world ranking list and is 21 years old.
Serbia has 13 athletes at this championship, and among the results the team has already posted is Ivana Spanovic’s eighth place in the triple jump. The championship closes today, August 16, the final day of a meet that opened on August 10.
Seen from this distance, 12th place says less about Angelina Topic than it does about one evening in which her body did not answer the call. The 191-centimeter qualifying jump is 48 hours old and stands as a measure, not a verdict. The last day of the European Championships is today, and after it the only question left is one that only her next competition can answer.
