Raúl Roland Spank (born 13 July 1988, in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

) is a retired

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

athlete who specialised in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

. He competed on the world stage for the first time at the

2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics The 2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics were held in Marrakesh, Morocco on July 13–July 17. The host stadium was Stade Sidi Youssef Ben Ali. The boy's 400 metres hurdles event was initially won by Sudan's Abdulagadir Idriss in a time ...

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

. He finished seventh in the final, jumping a personal best of 2.11 metres. The following year he moved up to the junior level, taking part in the 2006 World Junior Championships. He finished the tournament in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

with another personal best of 2.23 m, ending up in fifth place. In February 2008 he improved his indoor best to 2.26 m and further improvement came outdoors later that year at his first

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. Representing Germany at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he finished in fifth place with a personal best of 2.32 m, just two centimetres away from a medal position. After winning the 2009 indoor national championships, Spank competed for Germany at continental level for the first time, forming part of the team at the

2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held in Turin, Italy, from Friday, 6 March to Sunday, 8 March 2009. The championships took place at the Oval Lingotto indoor arena

. Although he had equalled his new indoor best of 2.30 m in the qualifying rounds, he only managed 2.25 m in the final of the competition, resulting in a seventh-place finish. He went to the first

European Team Championships European Team Championships is the name of the team sports competition between European countries organized by various European sports federations. May refer to: * European Athletics Team Championships, former European Team Championships (ETC), ath ...

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

, Portugal in June but he finished in tenth with a sub-par jump of 2.15 m. At the World Championships in Berlin he won the bronze medal with personal best-equalling jump of 2.32 m. He improved his best shortly afterwards, winning the

Internationales Hochsprung-Meeting Eberstadt The Internationales Hochsprung-Meeting is an annual high jumping competition which takes place in Eberstadt, Germany. Established as a men's competition in 1979, it quickly became an important meeting in the high jump calendar, with Jacek Wszoła s ...

meeting with 2.33 m. He won at the

2010 German Athletics Championships The 2010 German Athletics Championships were held at the Eintracht-Stadion in Braunschweig on 17–18 July 2010. Results Men Women References * Results source: External links Official website of the German Athletics Championship ...

, but did not make the team for the

2010 European Athletics Championships The 2010 European Athletics Championships were the 20th edition of the European Athletics Championships, organised under the supervision of the European Athletic Association. They were held at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Cat ...

as he had not achieved the standard set by the German Athletics Federation. He jumped 2.30 m at the Eberstadt meeting and took his second consecutive victory. During his career Spank was coached by Erika Falz and Jörg Elbe and was a member of Dresdner SC 1898's athletics team. He officially retired at the end of the 2016 season.

Statistics

Personal bests

*All information taken from IAAF profile.Spank, Raul Biography

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 2009-06-29.

Major competition record

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spank, Raul 1988 births Living people Athletes from Dresden German male high jumpers German national athletics champions Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Germany World Athletics Championships medalists