Ukraine's Doroshchuk wins world indoor high jump gold

Oleh Doroshchuk, a 24-year-old Ukrainian athlete, has won the gold medal at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in the city of Toruń, Poland.

Source: Champion, a sports news platform within Ukrainska Pravda's holding company

Details: Twelve athletes competed for medals in the men's high jump final, including Doroshchuk, who won gold at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

Doroshchuk, South Korea's Woo Sang-hyeok and Jamaica's Raymond Richards all cleared 2.17 m and 2.22 m at the first attempt, while the rest of the finalists already ran into problems at those heights.

The 2.22 m proved beyond Japan's Naoto Hasegawa and Italy's Christian Falocchi. Poland's Mateusz Kołodziejski, Greece's Antonios Merlos and Algeria's Younes Ayachi all failed three times at 2.26 m.

Six finalists went on to 2.30 m. Doroshchuk was the first to clear that height, doing so on the first attempt. During the jump, the Ukrainian clipped the bar – it shook but stayed in place.

Mexico's Erick Portillo sensationally stayed in contention, setting a personal best by clearing 2.30 m at the third attempt.

All the others went out of contention. That included Woo Sang-hyeok, the 2025 world champion, who failed three times at 2.30 m and shared bronze with Raymond Richards.

All three of Doroshchuk's attempts at 2.33 m were unsuccessful, but Erick Portillo also failed to clear the height. Having required more attempts overall, the Mexican took silver, while Doroshchuk claimed his first world title.

2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships. Men's high jump

• 1. Oleh Doroshchuk (Ukraine) – 2.30 m
• 2. Erick Portillo (Mexico) – 2.30 m
• 3. Woo Sang-hyeok (South Korea) – 2.26 m
• 3. Raymond Richards (Jamaica) – 2.26 m

This is Ukraine's first medal in the men's high jump at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in 12 years. The last came when Andrii Protsenko won silver in 2014, while Ukraine had never previously won gold in the event at the Indoor Championships.

Background:

• At the previous two world championships, Doroshchuk finished in the top five: he came fourth in 2024 with a jump of 2.24 m and placed fifth last year with 2.28 m.
• It is also the first time in history that Ukraine has had both the men's and women's high jump champions at the same World Championships. Earlier, Yaroslava Mahuchikh won gold at the 2026 World Indoor Championships, while fellow Ukrainian Yuliia Levchenko took silver.

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