Ukraine's Yaroslava Maguchich's record in the high jump of 210 centimeters, which she set at a Diamond League competition on July 7, 2024, has not yet been recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations. Thus, at the moment, Stefka Kostadinova's record of 209 centimeters still remains as #1. What are you waiting for? Dobromir Karamarinov, president of the European Athletics Federation, spoke to FAKTI.
- Mr. Karamarinov, why is Yaroslava Maguchich's record not yet ratified by the International Federation of Athletics?
- I can explain to you how the ratification of each world record is done, but I cannot go into private cases. World records in athletics are extremely rigorously scrutinized, and this world record was set at a “Diamond League” competition. In the race, of course, there is doping control, and with a simple world record we have mandatory doping control. There is a height measurement by the judge who is on the sector and a re-measurement by the jumping referee. Then there is a mandatory spike check. This is something new and maybe not much known by the general public.
- Why are spikes checked?
- With each new world record in athletics, the athletes' spikes are sent to an institute in Germany, where they are checked.
- What role do they play in the high jump…
- Spikes can play a very important role. You know that technology has advanced a lot, respectively the spikes of each competitor must meet precisely defined requirements. Of course, they are first checked before the race by a judge when the competitor enters the sector. When a world record is set, these spikes are rechecked, and this is sometimes delayed for different disciplines. It's just that the spikes are checked by different specialists and sometimes this leads to forgetting. The ratification of a world record takes place after all the necessary documents have been submitted. We are talking about the result of the mandatory doping control, the result of the spike check, the signatures of all the height measuring officials, the time this world record was made. All these documents, all these applications are checked by several people in the office of the International Athletics Federation and only after that comes ratification with the signature of the president of the International Athletics Federation.
- But the International Athletics Federation ratified several world records that were after Maguchich's. What's up…
- See, ratification may take longer for different disciplines. At the moment, I can't say what the case is with Maguchih, because different specialists give opinions on different things. But we have had such a delay on other occasions as well. Why is this now - I cannot give an answer. But this, in general, is not something we should take for granted at this time.
- Have you raised the question before the world federation as to why the ratification is being delayed?
- This is a procedure.
- And we wait for it to go all the way?
- Yes, of course. Now, the very asterisk that currently sits in front of Ukrainian Maguchych's world record means that the full set of documents has not yet arrived or has not been fully processed. And sometimes that takes a long time.