Ivana Spanovic Switches to Triple Jump, Eyes Valencia
The winner of 15 medals explained at a press conference of the athletics federation why she is continuing her career in a new event and what awaits her before next winter.
“It wasn’t a bad season, it could have been better.” That is how Ivana Spanovic assessed the year, her first full one in a new event, at a press conference of the Athletics Federation of Serbia on Wednesday, October 7. The winner of 15 medals at major long jump competitions is continuing her career in the triple jump, and her first goal is the European Indoor Championships in Valencia next winter.
The federation used the conference to sum up the results of Serbian athletes in 2026 and to announce what comes next. Serbian athletics marks 120 years of existence on October 15, and Belgrade hosts the European Cross Country Championships for the second time on December 13. Still, the most talked-about question was what Spanovic will do next.
Why the triple jump instead of retirement?
She answered without evasion: “Between ending my career and the triple jump, I decided to try to win medals in a new event. I am looking forward to the European Championships in Valencia next winter.”
She has been triple jumping for less than a year. At the Mediterranean Games in Taranto she wanted a medal in the new event, but gold did not come. She explained why she was not consistent all season:
“The result was solid, I’m sorry I didn’t get that gold even though I was ready, but that is in the end the reason why I wasn’t consistent all season. It’s simply because the triple jump is a much more demanding event than the long jump, it’s new to me, and no matter how much experience I have, all of it is new to me too.”
Spanovic pointed out that she finished the year among the 10 best triple jumpers in the world, which, as she put it, is “a result quite worth mentioning” for someone who has been jumping the new event for so short a time.
What got in her way this season?
Spanovic revealed that three competitions were cancelled this year. Once she was injured, another time she fell ill, and for the third she said she does not know what happened and that they did not go. Each of those cancellations, she explained, set her back “at least two weeks” in her training cycle.
She sees the Achilles tendon as the biggest obstacle. Because of it she trains less than before, so the amount of work is calculated in advance, and anything beyond that is too great a risk for her. That is why she set her goal cautiously:
“For a start, next year, the indoor championships for sure. After that we will see, once the calendar comes out, what competitions there are and where they are.”
Her primary goal, she added, is to finish her career healthy, “as far as the body allows, nothing beyond that.”
What did the others say at the conference?
Younger colleagues spoke alongside Spanovic, and several of them share the same next goal: the indoor championships in Valencia.
Aleksandrija Mitrovic, who won bronze at the same Mediterranean Games in Taranto, said her primary goal is qualifying for that competition: “Although demanding qualifications await me, I believe I have the quality to go to that competition.”
Adriana Vilagos, a javelin thrower, won gold at the Mediterranean Games and bronze at the European Championships this year, and regularly threw beyond 65 meters. Her gaze is directed further ahead:
“Although an injury at the very start prevented me from reaching my maximum, I managed to establish consistency. I won medals at the European Championships and the Mediterranean Games, with throws beyond 65 meters. Now my focus is the World Championships outdoors in China next year and the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028.”
High jumper Angelina Topic won bronze at the European Championships in Poland and cleared two meters for the first time in her career. “This was my best year so far,” she said, and added: “I also cleared two meters, which I am especially proud of.” Valencia and the World Championships in China are in her plans.
How does Spanovic see her successors?
She was also asked about younger colleagues, Luka Boskovic and Aleksandrija Mitrovic. She replied that she is “tearing her hair out with joy over nonsense”, said Boskovic is “one missing link” in Serbian athletics and that she sees “huge potential” in him, not only physical but mental. Of Mitrovic she said it is “only a matter of time” before she wins a medal at a bigger competition.
The first date already known is October 15 and the celebration of 120 years of Serbian athletics. The European Cross Country Championships in Belgrade are on December 13, and Spanovic will wait for the indoor championships in Valencia for her first real test in the triple jump.
