The elite of long jump and pole vault came together in the city centre Innsbruck for the 15th Golden Roof Challenge. Their extraordinary arena: The historic area in front of the tourist spot Goldenes Dachl meaning Golden Roof. At this In-City-Event, the cheering spectators can follow the competition with the top-stars jumping in touching distance – contrary to the spacious athletics stadiums. The centrepiece of the contest is the “FlySwat”, the largest mobile athletics facility in the world. It’s 72.3 metres long and weighs 25 tons. The „FlySwat“ is used by both sports: Facing towards one side the athletes spiral upwards in the Austrian evening sky, facing towards the other side long jumpers sprint towards the sandpit. The Long Jump Women competition was a really close one, as Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk from Ukraine won the competition with a length of 6,74m by just 8cm ahead of her opponent Alina Rotaru (ROM). The podium was completed by Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova (BLR) with only 1cm behind. The Long Jump Men competiton was dominated by Juan Miguel Echevarria (CUB), the star of this years Golden Roof Challenge. He is the current number 1 in the World Ranking and the 2018 Indoor World Champion. Echevarria won the competition with 8,15m. Second place was won by the Great Britain Feron Sayers and third finished Zarck Visser from South Africa.
During the Pole Vault Women competition the Swedish Angelica Bengtsson set a new Golden Fly Series meeting record with a height of 4,61m. She won gold ahead of Aksana Gataullina (ANA, authorized neutral athlete) In the Men Pole Vault competition the defending champion Konstantinos Filippidis won took home the Golden Roof Challenge title 2019 again. With a height of 5,61m he left Charlie Myers from Great Britain on second and Axel Chapelle from France on third.

Results

Long Jump Women
1. Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (UKR) – 6,74m
2. Alina Rotaru (ROM) – 6,66m
3. Nastassia Mironchyk-Ivanova (BLR) – 6,65m

Long Jump Men
1. Juan Miguel Echevarria (CUB) – 8,15m
2. Feron Sayers (GBR) – 7,92m
3. Zarck Visser (RSA) – 7,86m