Dragutin Topić

Dragutin Topić (2009)

Dragutin Topić ( Serbian - Cyrillic Драгутин Топић , born March 12, 1971 in Belgrade ) is a Serbian high jumper who rose to world class in 1990 with a junior world record and his European title in 1990. The 1.97 m tall and 77 kg heavy Topić began his career as a Yugoslav athlete and remained through all the political changes in his homeland through which he could achieve top placements in international championships.

Career

Topić was a student at a high school in Illinois in 1987/1988 , where he mainly trained basketball. After his return, he trained more jumping ability and took fourth place at the European Junior Championships in 1989, his best performance at the end of 1989 was 2.23 m.

In 1990 he became Junior World Champion in Plovdiv with a height of 2.37 m, this junior world record still exists in 2017. Three weeks later Topić also won the European Athletics Championships in Split . With 2.34 m he was tied with Alexei Jemelin from the Soviet Union and the Bulgarian Georgi Dakow , but won due to the lower number of failed attempts. At the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in 1991 , he finished ninth with 2.28 m.

At the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Genoa in 1992 , Topić won bronze with 2.29 m together with the German Ralf Sonn . In May 1992 the UN imposed sanctions on Yugoslavia. According to this, no invitations to representatives of Yugoslavia should be sent to international sporting events. For the Olympic Games in Barcelona , it was agreed that Yugoslavia should not participate as a team, but that athletes as Independent Olympic Participants ( Independent Olympic Participants, may participate IOP). In athletics, two representatives with the abbreviation IOP reached final rankings: Topić was eighth with 2.28 meters, and Dragan Perić was seventh in the shot put.

In 1993 Topić improved the Yugoslav record to 2.38 m, but could not qualify for the final at the World Championships in Stuttgart . That same year, he was banned from taking stimulants for three months. At the European Championships in Helsinki in 1994 , he was fifth with 2.31 m. In 1995 he won the Universiade in Fukuoka and was eighth at the World Championships in Gothenburg with 2.25 m.

In 1996 Topić won the European Indoor Championships in Stockholm with 2.35 m. At the Olympic Games in Atlanta , he was fourth with 2.32 m. Without a mistake up to this height he was surpassed next to Charles Austin and Artur Partyka also by the British Steve Smith , who had been behind Topić due to a failed attempt at 2.25 m. In 1997 he won bronze at the World Indoor Championships in Paris with 2.32 m behind Olympic champion Charles Austin and the Greek Lambros Papakostas . At the European Championships in Budapest in 1998 he jumped 2.24 m and finished ninth.

In the following year he jumped 2.32 m at the World Championships in Seville in 1999 and missed bronze in fourth only because of the higher number of failed attempts against Martin Buß . At the European Indoor Championships in Ghent in 2000 , three jumpers jumped over 2.34 m. Because of the failed attempt regulation Vyacheslav Voronin won before Buß and Topić. At the Olympic Games in Sydney he could not recommend himself as 21st in the qualification for the final. On February 2, 2001, Topić tested positive for norandrosterone at a meeting in Wuppertal and was banned for two years. He used this time to earn money as a basketball player.

At the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in 2003 , he returned to international athletics. With 2.30 m he missed a medal against the Belarusian Henads Maros only because of the number of failed attempts . At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he was again in the final and was tenth with 2.29 m. After a fifth place with 2.30 m at the European Indoor Championships 2005 in Madrid, he finished ninth at the World Championships in Helsinki with 2.25 m.

After that, Topić could not qualify for a final outdoors, he was a participant in the 2007 World Championships, the 2008 Olympic Games, the 2009 World Championships, the 2012 European Championships and the 2012 Olympic Games. At the 2008 Indoor World Championships and the 2009 European Indoor Championships, however, he made the jump in the final fight and finished sixth and eighth. But even in old age he still jumped in the extended world elite, so that he currently holds two age records (2.31 meters with over 35 years and 2.28 meters with over 40 years)

literature

• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 2006. The international Track and Field Annual. SportsBooks, Cheltenham 2006, ISBN 1-899807-34-9 .

Web links

• Dragutin Topić in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Dragutin Topić in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Footnotes

1. ↑ Volker Kluge : Olympic Summer Games. Chronicle IV. Seoul 1988 - Atlanta 1996. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-328-00830-6 , p. 350.
2. ↑ TOPIC Dragutin (YUG) ( Memento of the original from August 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , IAAF 1997  
3. ^ Yugoslavian High Jumper Fails Test , Associated Press February 28, 2001
4. ↑ Records men ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.