On the goals of the triple jumper Hanna Knyazeva-Minenko at the European Championships in a hall that opens on a weekend in Poland
Knyazeva-Minenko.
Part of a small Israeli delegation
Photo:
Alan Shiver
Apparently the European Indoor Athletics Championships, which will kick off today in Poland and last until Sunday, is a competition that aims to bring European athletics back to routine, just before deciding whether the Olympic Games will be held this summer.
For Hannah Knyazeva-Minenko, the triple jumper, this is a competition that will determine where her career goes. At the age of 31, is she able to compete with the top of the world, or did the injuries overwhelm one of the great athletes who represented Israel? Minenko is still ranked 21st in the world, but the results at the top of the world escaped her while she suffered injuries and was absent from competitions. The most prominent triple jumper in the world in recent years, Yulimar Rojas, set the second-highest result in history about a year ago when she jumped to 15.43 meters in the hall. Minenko at her peak was the world runner-up after a jump of 14.78 meters. On Saturday (12:00, Eurosport) she will return to the main stage, and the Athletics Association fought to compete, even at the cost of lack of sporting success, the main thing is to feel competitions again, re-exercise the body recovering from ankle crisis and corona epidemic that prevented international activity, and return to work with one coach - and who if not Alex Merman will try to help her achieve what at the moment on paper seems far: a criterion for games in Tokyo.