Henkes qualifies for Gyor...in his first ever high jump competition!

Austrian high jumper Ben Henkes was merely aiming to seal the qualifying standard of 1.70m to take part in his national U18 championships earlier this season but the 17-year-old ended up qualifying for the European Athletics U18 Championships in Gyor, Hungary next month with a 2.00m clearance.

But what is remarkable - and maybe even unprecedented - about Henkes’ story is he achieved the qualifying standard in his first ever high jump competition - and in his first time ever jumping in spikes!

Henkes’ aptitude for the high jump was spotted by Erwin Reiterer and Wolfgang Braunauer at the Maria Enzersdorf gymnasium where he jumped 1.90m in a gym class in trainers. He was soon put in touch with Ukraine’s former world and European high jump champion Inga Babakova, who is now a coach at the Austrian Athletics Federation, and he blossomed immediately.

Henkes, who is 1.90m tall - and an active handball player - was duly enrolled at ULC Riverside Moedling and a competition was arranged for him at very short notice. The competition had to be moved indoors due to the rain and Babakova extended Henkes’ approach from nine to eleven steps in order to adapt to the surface.

Jumping in high jump spikes - which were funded by his club - for the first time, Henkes duly cleared his opening height of 1.70m to qualify for the Austrian U18 Championships. But he kept going higher and higher until he mastered 2.00m on his third attempt to clinch the qualifying standard for the European U18 Championships.

Since the competition took place indoors due to the inclement conditions, Henkes’ mark topped the Austrian indoor lists - across all age-groups - and he is also ranked a close second on the combined lists behind Andreas Steinmetz' 2.03m, a mark which Henkes surely has in his sights.

The 2.00m barrier in Austrian athletics is mainly associated with Helmut Donner who became the first Austrian to clear that height on 8 August 1959 - nearly a decade before Dick Fosbury revolutionised the event with the the ‘Fosbury Flop,’

Five decades later, such a height is now commonplace - even at U18 level - and the general secretary of the Austrian Athletics Federation Helmut Baudis has predicted a gleaming future for this new high jumping prospect. 'Why should he not be able to jump 2.30m one day?' he said.