A Long Jump

Ivana Španović, a member of the Serbian national team and the Serbian long jump record holder was selected the best young athlete in 2010 by the Athletics Federation of Serbia.

By Vanja Savić
Photo by Courtesy of the Athletics Federation of Serbia

Ivana grew up in a sports-oriented family. As a child she was versatile and lively. She liked to play рubber band jumping with her girl-friends, but also she liked to play ball games with her elder brother.

Some time later, she and her brother both took karate lessons. When her brother became a teenager and started playing football Ivana was seven years old. A lot of medals her mother won in athletics competitions that hanged on the wall made Ivana decide to become an athlete.

A couple of years later, Ivana started winning her first medals in school competitions and grew to become a winner in the national and world athletics competitions afterwards. Yet, all this was not enough for a young and vigorous Ivana. She wanted more. She started playing handball, volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, all at the same time. Still she continued with her athletic practices.

Why did you choose a long jump? Besides your physical characteristics is there any other reason that made you choose exactly this event?

– Although I have competed in almost all events and broke a national record in the five-round competition as a pioneer, a long jump attracted me the most. Since I have made quite great results in this discipline I was able to choose and I made a good choice. Frankly, all I wanted was to break my mother’s individual record being 13 years old. I set up my next national records for other reasons.

Last year was a very successful one for you. Is there anything you would single out and how much does the award for the best senior athlete 2010 given by the Athletics Federation of Serbia mean to you?

– I‘ve made a lot of changes of my own initiative because I thought it was important to do so. I moved to Novi Sad. I joined other athletic team and change my coach. I enrolled in a college as well. Unfortunately, Zrenjanin was not able to offer me more.

I have been practicing for years without a coach and that was a big problem for me. I changed my jumping technique in a very short period. I adopted it, which was the most important, but since it was still a quite new technique to me I was not able to precisely estimate what I was capable of. Altogether, it was a very good year for me; first of all I participated in the Diamond League, European Championship, European Cup in Belgrade then a new individual and national record of 6.73 m came. I was selected the Serbian best younger senior athlete. This award means a lot to me and it helped me to increase my self-confidence. I know that other people appreciate the achievements I made so far. This fact motivates me and gives me strength for my further competitions. Also, I think that we are on a right track to restore to our splendor because a new promising generation has come. This new generation has already proved its quality and it will continue to make even more achievements thanks to sport experts and others who take interests in this sport.

People often call athletics the Queen of all sports. What do you think of it?

– Athletics is the Queen of all sports and I am a princess. I think this is quite clear.

Will you take part in other competitions to be held from the end of March till the end of the year? What results can we expect from you in the forthcoming period?

– The Senior Athletics Competition and the World Senior Athletics Competition are two most important competitions to be held this year. Apart from these two competitions two more competitions will be held this year as well. One is the Diamond League and the other is the European Cup in Novi Sad. I wish to improve my individual record and achieve a higher score in the world’s women jumper ranking. My ranking will change in the course of time, so I would rather not talk about it now.

In your opinion, besides hard practicing what else is necessary for you to achieve a high ranking position among world’s best athletes?

– I work with a team of people whom I trust and I am convinced that we can get a good result in each moment. I have been ranked quite high so far and awarded with medals. All I need are good conditions for my practices, especially in the winter. Everything else is going to be as "easy" as it has been so far.

Tell us, what do you think why Serbian athletics is still not so developed as in other countries?

– In other countries sports are being much more promoted then here and there are lots of sponsors involved. Serbia is a small country and we are used to improvising everything or else we wouldn’t have managed anything. I am joking, it is a little bit ironic but true. The most important thing is that we are given a necessary support from the people who are important to us. I believe that we are going to achieve our goals.

Apart from athletics what are your other interests?

– The less free time I have the more I appreciate it. I am trying to spend my free time in the best possible way. I like to read, write, go to movies, go out with my friends, attend yoga classes, paint, and draw. Since I am not particularly successful in those things I don’t want to boast. Still, I’ll keep on trying to find different ways to be more creative.