Raúl Spank
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Raúl Roland Spank (born 13 July 1988, in
Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
) is a retired
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
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 IAAF World Youth Championships in Athletics, 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 w ...
in
Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...
. 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, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
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 (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
. 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 in
Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...
, 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 was an annual high jumping competition which took 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, 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, C ...
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 and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
. 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 Diamond League winners 21st-century German sportsmen