Vilagos Fifth, Boskovic Eighth at Budapest Worlds
Serbian athletes wrapped up their Ultimate World Championships campaign in Budapest: a foul in the second round decided the javelin, the long jump ended after just two attempts.
The runway at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest empties out after every name that gets called. There is no third attempt for anyone, no comfort of “it will go better next time”: the Ultimate Championship format hands each athlete only two tries before sending them home. Our two athletes found themselves in that ring on Wednesday and Thursday, September 12 and 13, Adriana Vilagos in the javelin throw and Luka Boskovic in the long jump, a day after Angelina Topic had already shown that the Serbian team wasn’t here just to make up the numbers.
Adriana Vilagos played a game of roulette with the wind and her own arm on September 12. Her first throw was excellent, 61.37 meters, putting her second on the provisional list behind the Chinese thrower alone. Then she fouled in the second round, losing the attempt without a single centimeter on the board, and a third throw of 60.23 meters was no longer enough to put her back in the fight for a podium spot. She finished fifth.
After the competition she made no secret of the fact that a format with fewer rounds than she is used to adds extra pressure for every thrower.
“The mental preparation is different when we know we still have more chances to come; like this there is pressure, because we don’t know whether we will get another throw at all”
Vilagos said, adding that she would rather see the old formula of three throws plus three more restored. On the season itself, which also included a bronze medal at the European Championships in Birmingham alongside her fifth place in Budapest, she did not pretend everything had been easy.
“It was a challenging season and I would be lying if I said I was satisfied,” the thrower said, adding that a rest period comes next, followed by preparation for the season that brings the World Championships and the Olympic Games.
Luka Boskovic, a day later, on the evening of September 12, had even less room for error. Only two jumps were allowed under the format’s rules: the first went 7.66 meters, the second was a foul, and with that his long jump final was over. Eighth place, last in the field, but for someone making his debut on a stage like this, it still carried weight.
“Yes, of course. The simple fact that I made it here, among the best eight in the world, is a success”
Boskovic told Telegraf, answering a question about whether simply reaching Budapest, into a field of the world’s elite, counted as a success in itself. Asked what comes next, the athlete kept it short. “First to rest, then to start thinking about the preparation period,” he said.
The competition in both events left little room for surprises from outside the favorites. The gold medal in the javelin throw went to Olympic champion Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan, who set a national record doing it. Sources differ on the exact distance: B92 reports 68.95 meters, while Danas has it at 68.93. Silver went to China’s Zija Jan with 68.05 meters, and bronze to Flor Denis Ruis Hurtado, whom B92 lists as representing the Dominican Republic and Danas as Colombian, with a throw of 64.84 meters.
In the long jump, Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece defended his title with a result of 8.35 meters. It is worth correcting an inaccurate version that circulated afterward: the Greek jumper did not produce that distance on his first attempt. He opened with 8.16 meters in the first round and only reached the winning 8.35 in the second. Silver went to Bulgaria’s Bozidar Sarabojukov, who did not get to his 8.34 meters until the final round, so the gap between gold and silver came down to a single centimeter, decided on the very last possible attempt.
Prize money at this championship tracks placement almost in a straight line. The winner in each event takes home $150,000, while eighth place, the last spot in the final, brings $10,000. That is what Boskovic earned for his performance, according to Telegraf, on par with the prize for winning an individual Diamond League meeting. The total prize fund of the Ultimate World Championship, held in Budapest from September 11 to 13 for the first time in this format, stands at $10 million. Mondo Duplantis won the pole vault at the same championship.
The third Serbian representative, Angelina Topic, had already finished her business a day earlier. On Friday, September 11, she took third place in the high jump at 1.91 meters, clearing 1.86 and 1.91 on her first attempts before missing three times at 1.95. Gold went to world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine at 1.99 meters, silver to Australia’s Nicola Olislagers at 1.95, while bronze was shared with Topic by another Australian, Eleanor Paterson, both finishing at 1.91.
For Serbian athletics, the tally from Budapest is clear: no individual medal beyond the podium Topic had already secured on Friday, and two performances that, in the athletes’ own words, exceeded what they are used to on average. Vilagos already spelled out what comes next, a more serious run of seasons ahead of the World Championships and the Olympic Games, and that is a ledger that in athletics always gets settled at the next meeting, not this one.
