Jubilees, records, medals, emotion, history! All this and more was seen at the 11th Belgrade Indoor Athletics Meeting, which brought together the cream of the world’s ‘queen of sports’ in the Serbian capital. It took place under the sign of the number 11, as it was held on February 11, it is the 11th in the series, and 11 records were broken.
Packed stands of athletics fans in the Belgrade Athletics Hall, the “Belgrade Indoor Meeting” holding gold status and ranking among the eight elite indoor competitions in the world in 2026, 129 international athletes from 50 countries – including numerous World and European medalists – and 21 Serbian national team members all testify to the quality, strength, and popularity of an event that has been thriving for 11 years. The Serbian Athletics Federation works at full capacity 365 days a year, constantly driven by new ideas that raise the organizational standards of every competition and challenge they undertake.
In the year when Serbian athletics celebrates a major jubilee – 120 years of existence – the celebration began in the best possible way, with the outstanding organization of the Belgrade Indoor Meeting, where we enjoyed the brilliance of both domestic and international stars.
The rich competition program started at 14:35 with the women’s triple jump, where Serbia was represented by its legendary and most decorated athlete in history, Ivana Španović, alongside Aleksandrija Mitrović and Natalija Dragojević. The first record of the 11th Belgrade Indoor Meeting was set by Serbia’s queen of athletics, Španović, who broke the meeting record in the very first round with 14.19m. In the third round, she delivered another phenomenal jump of 14.27m, breaking the record once again. Ivana also holds the Serbian national record, recently set at the Serbia–Croatia–Slovenia tri-meet with an outstanding 14.41m performance.
“I’m satisfied in the sense that I won and broke the meeting record. I can say that again, even though I wasn’t at the level I expected, because I felt physically good. However, triple jump is different compared to long jump – it requires technical precision at every possible level that day to avoid mistakes. The most important thing for me is that I’m healthy and not afraid of competing, not afraid of running or jumping. This is also a nice announcement of everything that’s coming next,” said Španović after the competition.
In the heats, a new Belgrade Indoor Meeting record was set by Zaynab Dosso in the 60m with a time of 7.05. The world-leading result so far in 2026 in the women’s indoor 800m was achieved by Swiss athlete Audrey Werro, who ran 1:57.27 in the B final. Another world-leading performance followed, set by American shot putter Roger Steen with a throw of 22.07 m, while Serbian representative Armin Sinančević finished seventh with 19.81 m.
The main program began at 16:00. Young Serbian athletics star Angelina Topić started her high jump competition at 17:45. As the absolute favorite, competing against Lia Apostolovski, Iryna Gerashchenko, and Una Stancev Stevanović (a Serbian-born athlete competing for Spain), Topić confirmed her class. She battled for first place with her great rival, Montenegro’s Marija Vuković. In the final round at 1.96m, Angelina was dominant, securing first place and confirming a new meeting record.
In the long jump, Serbian representative Milica Gardašević triumphed with a leap of 6.61m. Jocelyn Wind set a meeting record in the women’s 1500m with 4:08.87. The Belgrade meeting record in the 3000m was broken by South Africa’s Tshepo Tshite with 7:50.87.
Olympic gold medalist from Tokyo, Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou – a six-time consecutive European champion and current European titleholder – set a meeting record in the 11th edition of the event with a jump of 8.27m. However, the record was later surpassed by Bulgarian multi-event jump star Bozhidar Saraboyukov. He first broke the record with 8.29m and then electrified the arena with a world-leading jump of 8.45m, bringing the hall to its feet. The applause and his “flying” performance at Banjica will be talked about worldwide. With that jump, he achieved the ninth-best indoor result of all time, now sharing that position with American JuVaughn Harrison, who set the same mark in 2021.
Polish sprinter Jakub Szymański set a new meeting record in the 60m hurdles with 7.43, also taking the European lead. The incredible Italian sprinter Zaynab Dosso added another record to the 11th Belgrade Indoor Meeting, clocking 7.02 in the 60m to break the meeting record and take the European lead. Hungarian sprinter Dominik Illovszky also set a meeting record in the 60m with 6.52.
Athletics fans were able to follow the competition live on TV Arena Sport Premium 3.
Speed, skill, energy, courage, ambition, smiles, and even tears – we witnessed it all during more than four hours of competition in the beautiful setting of the Athletics Hall in Banjica. See you next year – stronger, more experienced, even more beautiful, but always unique!
