Jaroslava from Hochich on his way to take over the high jump industry

After the Ukrainian Shiroslava from Ukraine sets a personal record, and her victory in the competition is already guaranteed, she refrains from further attempts to improve it by another inches. This is the tactic set by her coach Tatiana Stefanova: step-by-step progress. In a competition in a hall in Bansenka Bistrita, Slovakia two weeks ago, she added one centimeter to the record in the hall, when she passed 2.06 meters.

When she traveled to Slovakia, the original goal of the 19-and-a-half-year-old jumper was not to achieve further significant improvements. Certainly not to get so close to the world record in the halls of Swedish Casey Bergquist (2.08m). “I was already thinking of retiring from the competition, but then we decided that this time, contrary to the norm, I would still try one attempt for 2.06. What can already happen. I tried and passed. It’s unbelievable. I do not believe I succeeded,” she responded enthusiastically from Ukrainian Hochich, adding of course As athletes do: “Without my coach this would not have happened.” Her result is the best achieved in the hall in the last nine years.

Meanwhile, Mohchich has the world record for youth, 2.04m, a record that she improved in Doha 2019 by no less than three inches compared to Ludmila Torchuk’s previous record from the former Soviet Union in 1986.

It should be clarified that her last result in Slovakia, 2.06 m, is not a world record for youth even though she has not yet crossed the age of 20: the decisive date for the end of the youth period is January 1, 2021, and she missed it by several months. But no less important: if and when the Tokyo Olympics are held, it will fight for the gold in front of the current ruler, the experienced Russian Maria Lasyczkana.

In her character, Mahochich is not one of those athletes who talks a lot but prefers to do. It is impossible to write about the path of Mahochich, a native of the city of Dnepropetrovsk, without mentioning an Israeli jumper. Her name is Veronica Chinov, who when she was 14 years old was called the “Wonder Girl from Be’er Sheva” until she was arrested – hopefully temporarily. Chinov has held the cadet record since 2018, after 41 (!) Years in which the record belonged to Orit Abramovich. Chinov set a 1.79m when she won the Balkan Cadet Championship. Her connection to Mochich is that only two and a half years ago, a year before the Ukrainian was crowned runner-up in the world championship for seniors, she competed against her at the European Cadet Championships in the Hungarian city of Gyor.

“It was impossible to talk to her. She was with her coach all the time and looked very focused, more than anyone else. I definitely understood her. We felt she was special. Even then she was accompanied by a group of photographers and reporters,” Chinov says in impressions from the meeting with the future world star . In that competition Mahochich climbed the highest on the podium, but what, and Chinov closed the list of jumpers in the final in 12th place.

This was their first meeting that year, 2018. The second will come at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, to which the Israeli was invited thanks to reaching the final in conversion. The organizers did not want to disappoint the competitors who are supposed to fly in the regular format in the qualifiers, after arriving from distant destinations, so it was decided to hold two competitions over three days. The ranking is determined by the combination of the results of each participant in the two competitions. Who finished first? Needless to ask. Mahochich achieved in one competition 1.92 and in the other 1.95, 3.87 in the combination of the results. Veronica from Be’er Sheva, from the Negev Athletic Club, jumped 1.74 and 1.79, which was a record comparison. She finished in a respectable seventh place.

The current major title held by Mahochich is, as mentioned, the world runner-up in the high jump. Since this was an important competition, Mahochich then tried and improved twice her personal best of 2.00 m. She passed 2.01m and 2.4m in the third attempt – but here she retired. The retirement came even though the leading Letsatkina with 2.06m was still in competition. The coach made the calculation of what was right at that stage for her career. The deputies suited her better than another attempt at a crazy jump that might bring the gold.

In general, the “Suit” stadium in Doha is a kind of second home to Mochichi. In early summer 2019, a few months before the World Championships, she traveled there with butterflies in her stomach to take part in the Diamond League, when she was not yet 18. At the end of the competition she was announced as the first girl in the history of the prestigious factory to win a competition. In between, Mochich is also gaining a modeling career – and has become a celebrity in her country.

And what about Tokyo? Letzkina, who has so far jumped to a height of 2.00m this season, will march under the banner of the International Olympic Committee because her country is Russia suspended. It is considered a strong competitor of Mahochich. “I really appreciate the way Maria Lestatskina works and jumps,” Mahochich said of her rival in one of the interviews. Other significant rivals are the second Ukrainian Yulia Liebchenk, who holds a personal best of 2.02 m and the American Vashti Cunningham with 2.00 m this season.

Her way to the top of Mahochich was a bit winding. She started her childhood in karate, as a successor to her older sister. The local experts who followed her performance advised her to move to athletics. Then, her coach, Tatiana Stefanova, herself a former 400m hurdles runner, referred her to this profession. It very quickly became clear that this was a mistake: the right target for her was undoubtedly a high jump.

A period of time passed before Mahochich began to reach her full potential. At age 14, she jumped to 1.60m, no more. For comparison: the Israeli Orit Abramovitch, who at the age of 16 stunned to win gold at the Asian Nations Games in Tehran (1.78 m), jumped when she was 14 years taller. There was another, and you will not believe what her name is, who jumped more than Mahochich’s 1.60 at the age of 14. It was none other than Daniela Krakover, 1.62m, while living in Carmiel, before she later became the world champion in judo for Argentina. Some say that Hapoel Gilboa’s high jump coach, Danny Schur, was built later in Krakow’s career in judo.

But very soon Coach Stefanova found what was supposed to work as her deadly weapon: speed-force, a concept that parallels an explosive force. Israeli coach Anatoly Shafran, who managed to put himself on the map thanks to the rare victory of his trainee Dima Kreuter at the World Cadet Championships and the Youth Olympic Games, says: “Her foot is very dynamic. She is able to jump more than three meters and that’s a lot. “More than a unique jumping style.”

Has the woman finally been found to break Kostadinova’s record after 34 years?
“I think she certainly can. If she had ‘eaten’ what the Bulgarians, including Kostadinova, would have eaten, she would already be with more than 2.09m. I have no proof about the Bulgarians, but look where they are today in athletics compared to their achievements in the years. “Their records, including those of Kostadinova, and certainly in the 100m hurdles of Yordenka Donkova and Ginka Zagorceva, ranked second and third in history, have remained valid to this day.”

One of the most prominent phenomena in the athletics professions is the proliferation of Ukrainians at the top of the jumps. Mahochich represents the high jumpers, but also in long jump and triple jump they made their mark. One of them, at least at the beginning of the millennium, the previous one was Hannah Knyazeva-Minenko, who finished fourth in London 2012 in the triple jump, shortly after becoming one of our own thanks to her marriage to Anatoly Minenko. According to Shafran, himself a native of Ukraine (the city of Berdychiv), one of the main reasons for his success in jumping is the large number of excellent coaches there in jumping.

It will be intriguing to see what Jaroslava from Hochich and her strict coach Tatiana Stefanova are making in their toolbox ahead of Tokyo. We would not be surprised if it is seriously extracellular on the record of the historical world.