Ivana Španović


Ivana Španović is a Serbian long jumper, reigning World indoor champion and reigning European indoor champion. In 2013, she became the first Serbian track and field athlete to win a medal at the IAAF Outdoor World Championships.
In 2018, she became the first Serbian track and field athlete to win a world senior gold medal at the IAAF Indoor World Championships. She is the Serbian record holder in the long jump, indoors and outdoors, and also she is the national indoor record holder in the 60 metres and in the pentathlon. Her coach is Goran Obradović and she is a member of the Athletic Club Vojvodina in Novi Sad.

Career

Španović earned gold medals at the 2008 World Junior Championships and the 2009 Summer Universiade. She was selected as Serbia's Best Young Athlete of 2008. She also won silver medals at the 2007 World Youth Championships, the 2009 European Junior Championships and the 2011 European U23 Championships.
Španović participated in the qualifying round at the 2008 Olympic Games, and was a finalist at the 2012 Olympic Games.
In 2013, she started at the European Indoor Championship when she was ranked fifth. At the World outdoor championship she had achieved the best result in her career by then, bronze medal with the new national record 6.82 meters. The Olympic Committee of Serbia therefore declared her the best female athlete of the year.
In 2014, she won the bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships and silver medals at the European Outdoor championship and IAAF Continental Cup in Marrakesh. She also improved her outdoor personal best on 6.88 meters in the Diamond League meet in Eugene.
Španović was second in long jump at 2014 Diamand League race.
In 2015, she won her first gold medal as a senior athlete becoming European indoor champion with new national record 6.98 meters. She won the second bronze medal at the World outdoor championship, improving her national record twice, both in qualification and the final. Španović was second in long jump at 2015 Diamand League race. The Olympic Committee of Serbia therefore declared her the best female athlete of the year for the second time.
In 2016, during the indoor season, Španović won the silver medal at the World Indoor Championships improving her national record twice,
7.00 and 7.07. She was ahead for all the competition but she lost the gold medal because Reese had a fantastic 7.22 at the final round. During the outdoor, first Španović won the gold at the European Outdoor championship with 6.94, then she won the bronze medal at the Olympic Games with 7.08, new national record. Španović won for Serbia a medal in athletics at Olympic Games 60 years after the last medal. Španović clearly won 2016 Diamand League race in long jump. She won 5 of 7 meetings and she was second in the other two ones. At the end of her long season Ivana improved her national record to 7.10 in a street meeting in front of her home fans in Belgrade on September 11. This manifestation was held to promote 2017 European Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
In 2017, she had an impressive win at European indoor championships in Belgrade. During the qualification she achieved
the best ever indoor mark in a qualification round with 7.03. In the final she broke her national records twice, 7.16 and 7.24
. So, she defended her gold medal got in 2015. Her new national record, 7.24, put her as the third all-time indoor performers, and
result is the second best ever jumped in the European Indoor Championships and the best performance got in the latest 18 years, since Chistyakova has jumped 7.30 on 28.01.1989. During the outdoor season, she had injuries so before the World outdoor championships she competed only in two Diamond League meetings. She led in the first part of the competition, but she was only 4th before her last attempt. With her final jump Spanović seemed to land beyond the 7.02 mark of the leading, Brittney Reese, and tensely awaited the measurement but it was recorded only as 6.91. The Serbian team appealed but in slow motion replays it showed that maybe the indentation in the sand nearest to the board was made by the flapping bib number on her back. Her coach Obradović saw VDM images but according to him it was not clear if the possible mark was result of a bib contact or just of unevenly flattened sand. So she was only 4th with 6.96, behind Reese’s 7.02, Klishina’s 7.00 and Bartoletta’s 6.97. After World Championships Spanović won 2017 Diamand League race in long jump for the second consecutive time.
In 2018 she achieved the first world title, winning the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham with 6.96. Reese was 2nd with 6.89 and Moguenara 3rd with 6.85. Španović is the first Serbian athlete to win a world senior title in athletics.
After Španović won the gold medal at the Mediterranean Games in Tarragona with the Games record, she got
the best performance in the qualification at European Championships in Berlin. But an injury during the qualification forced her to give up the final and to defend her title. Her 6.84 got in qualification was better than the performance got by Mihambo to win the gold medal, so it was the best result in the competition.
The injury at Achille's tendon forced Španović to give up the final part of the season, included 2018 Diamand League race in which she qualified for the final.
In 2019 Španović, recovered by the injury of the previous summer, won gold medal at European indoor championships in Glasgow with 6.99. She matched the world indoor leading mark of 6.99 to emulate Heike Drechsler as a three times in a row winner, but she got it in editions held every two years.
Španović has achieved twelve victories in the IAAF Diamond League circuit: at the DN Galan in 2013 ; at the Prefontaine Classic and Weltklasse Zürich in 2014; at the Herculis and Weltklasse Zürich in 2015; at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, at the Bislett Games, at the DN Galan, at the Athletissima and at Meeting Areva in 2016; at the Athletissima and at Memorial Van Damme, final of Diamond League in 2017. Also, she has achieved two victories in the IAAF World Challenge circuit, at the ISTAF Berlin in 2015 and at the Hanžeković Memorial with 6.96, new meeting record, in 2016.
Since 2013 World Championships Španović has won medals in 9 consecutive major championships.
She set 30 national senior records: 12 outdoors, 18 indoors.

Personal bests

Outdoor

Indoor

International competitions

1Did not start in the final

Honours

Ivana's parents are Ljubiša and Vesna Španović. Her mother was also a competitive athlete. She favors a distinctive and playful personal style. Even on the field she can be seen fiercely competing with her fellow elite athletes while sporting fashionable nails, often polished in neon colours.