Ivana Spanovic seldom comes away from a championships empty handed but the pre-competition favourite was forced to watch the European Championships final unfold from the sidelines after rupturing her Achilles tendon in qualifying.
Spanovic could only watch on as Malaika Mihambo was feted in Berlin outdoors last summer but the star of Serbian athletics has returned to competition in time to put up a defence of her title at the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
“This season is definitely different because I had a really serious injury last summer so I’m trying not to think about it since I recovered pretty well but every comeback is tough and difficult,” said Spanovic after setting a season’s best of 6.78m at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham on Saturday (16).
It took Spanovic three attempts to record a valid jump in Birmingham but her third round mark of 6.78m represented a considerable improvement on her season’s opener at the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin at the start of the month. Spanovic acknowledges she is not quite the finished article yet but her preparations are very much geared towards being in her best form when she faces Europe’s best in Glasgow.
“I mean, there are still some things to fix but I just need to be against my tough opponents and try to do everything that is needed, stay focused and just be me. I’m really confident about my comeback and I will do my best with my team to be ready for the European Indoor Championships.”
Spanovic has one more competition before Glasgow and she is confident she will further surpass her season’s best at tonight’s (20) Serbian Open Indoor Meeting in Belgrade.
“This will be the last check before Glasgow,” she said. “I expected to jump around 6.80m [in Birmingham] but I had some flu so I didn’t know how I was going to react but I know back home with my audience and the atmosphere I think I will be close to seven metres. If I can confirm that in Belgrade, I think Glasgow will be at the level I need.”
Spanovic might not always win the one-day meetings but she has a redoubtable record in major championships, picking up medals in every event - indoors and outdoors - between the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow and the 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
Spanovic has won three of the last four major indoor championships but her aspirations of winning a hat-trick of European indoor gold medals - something that hasn’t been achieved since Heike Drechsler in 1988 - will be tested by Drechsler’s compatriot Mihambo who has already jumped 6.99m this season.
At this early juncture of her comeback, does Spanovic feel capable of surpassing the seven metre-barrier again in Glasgow?
“Yes, of course,” said Spanovic who resumed light training in late October. “During every single year I prepare myself to be the best I can be in the main competitions so for me it’s important that I know in every aspect where I am at. For me, Glasgow is the main target - every single competition before is just preparation to see what I can do better and better.”
Spanovic will be making her fifth appearance at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow next month. She made her senior debut at the 2007 European Indoor Championships in Birmingham at the age of 16. A decade later, the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade was the setting for the greatest moment of her career thus far, winning gold at the Kombank Arena with 7.24m.
“Emotionally on every level it was something truly amazing,” said Spanovic. “We never thought we could hold that kind of competition so for the Serbian crowd it was enormous and I was really, really about the result - the emotion was on the highest level - but I really think I can produce that same result elsewhere.”