Kęstutis Šapka

Kęstutis Šapka (born November 15, 1949 in Vilnius ) is a former Lithuanian high jumper who competed for the Soviet Union.

At the European Indoor Championships in Sofia in 1971 , he was sixth with 2.14 m. In the summer at the European Championships in Helsinki , three jumpers crossed the height of 2.20 m, while the Hungarian indoor European champion István Major was eliminated in fourth. Šapka achieved this height in the first attempt, the Hungarian Csaba Dosa in the second and Šapka's Ukrainian team-mate Rustam Akhmetov in the third. The medals were distributed, and with Šapka, a high jumper had won the European championship for the first time with the Fosbury flop.

At the European Indoor Championships in Grenoble in 1972 Major defended his title with 2.24 m. The two Balts Šapka and Jüri Tarmak placed second and third with 2.22 m each . In the summer Tarmak won gold at the Olympic Games in Munich with 2.23 m, while Šapka disappointed in twelfth place with 2.15 m.

In 1974 Šapka won the European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg with 2.22 m ahead of the Hungarian Major and Vladimír Malý from the ČSSR, fourth was the Dane Jesper Tørring . In the summer, Šapka won the Soviet championships for the second time after 1972. At the European Championships in Rome in 1974, Maly was eliminated in third, Major in fourth and Pole Jacek Wszoła in fifth with 2.19 m. Tørring and Šapka, on the other hand, reached both 2.21 m and 2.23 m in the first attempt, and both jumped their personal best with 2.25 m in the second attempt. So both had jumped higher with the flop than Dick Fosbury in his Olympic victory in 1968. After both Tørring and Šapka failed at 2.27 m, Tørring won gold, since Šapka at 2.17 m and 2.19 m each a failed attempt was subverted.

Kęstutis Šapka is 1.91 m tall and weighed 86 kg during his playing days.

literature

• ATFS (Ed.): USSR Athletics Statistics. London 1988
• Ekkehard zur Megede: The Modern Olympic Century 1896-1996 Track and Field Athletics. Berlin 1999 (published by the German Society for Athletics Documentation eV )