Lavsky: I didn’t expect to become second at the European Championships

Ukrainian track and field athlete Vladislav Lavsky commented on the successful performance in the final high jump on European Athletics Championships 2024.

“I am very glad that I came here with such company. Tamberi is a cool guy, very emotional. I think it even helped me, and also motivated me that our guys are defending Ukraine. I didn’t expect to come second. “Thank you to all Ukrainians for their support, to our soldiers, thanks to whom I can perform here and fight for medals for Ukraine.”

“Scary. It motivated me a little too, but I see that [Олег Дорощук] takes it, and I understand that I also need to take it and fight further. Showing your season record would be good. And only then 2.26 m, they started running in a circle, I started running. Maybe it scared me [забег на 10000 м]but I took it [высоту]”

“How did you prepare? I won’t say it’s by force. I don’t have such a power surge, it’s more speedy. I didn’t even think about anything, I just wanted to take it and that’s it.”

“It was harder in qualifying. And when I jumped back, it became easier. I jumped up before the final, I felt good. Emotionally it’s very cool, this stadium, everyone is screaming, the music – this also probably cheered me up and turned me on. Probably, this is also appropriate for me, some kind of emotional encouragement.”

“To be honest, I watch my opponents. The closer you get to the medal, maybe it gets a little easier. And only then, when you are alone or there are three of you, it lets go even more, and you can jump even more. It would feel like you could jump 2.33m.”

Vladislav Lavsky won a silver medal, and his compatriot Oleg Doroshchuk won bronze. For only the second time in history, Ukrainians scored a double podium in the high jump at the European Championship level. In 2014, Bogdan Bondarenko and Andrey Protsenko succeeded in doing the same (respectively, “gold” and “silver”).

Let us remind you that earlier at the 2024 European Championships, Yaroslava Maguchikh became the European champion in high jump, and Irina Gerashchenko took third place. In addition, Lyudmila Olyanovskaya won bronze in the 20-kilometer walk, and Mikhail Kokhan won bronze in the hammer throw. Thus, the Ukrainian team already has six medals at the tournament, which is taking place in Rome.