BIOGRAPHY
After 10 years in the sport, at aged 20 Chris Mitrevski won his first National long jump title in 2017. Seven years on he will make his Olympic debut in Paris, after a personal best leap of 8.32m at the 2024 Australian Championships. The leap elevated him to number six Australian all-time and was the longest by an Aussie for six years.
Chris’ journey in the sport started after a year of Little Athletics in under-6s. After a break he returned as an under-10 and has been doing athletics ever since. His mum registered him as he was an ultra-competitive kid. “I was okay as a junior and would regularly make finals but it wasn’t until I was 20-years-old before I won my first national title.”
In 2014, aged 18, Chris was third in the Australian junior championships (jumping 7.30m) and in his last year as a junior (2015) he placed fourth in the 100m and was second in the long jump. He closed his junior career with bests of 10.65 (100m), 21.17 (200m) and 7.45m (LJ).
In early 2016, before his 20th birthday, in his first six competitions of the year he improved his PB on five occasions. Staring with 7.45m, he leapt 7.47m, 7.70m, 7.72m and 7.75m. He finished fifth at Nationals.
His 2016/17 campaign was just as good jumping 7.92m, then 7.97m and also a windy 8.05m. He won the National title, then mid-year at the World University Games he placed fourth.
With a home Commonwealth Games the goal of every athlete, Chris was up for the challenge, winning the trials and National Championship with a PB 8.01m and windy 8.09m jump. At the Games he placed sixth with a leap of 7.90m.
Unfortunately for Chris post-Commonwealth Games he went into a slump for the next two years. Leaping over 8.00 metres once, most jumps were around 7.60m, occasionally 7.80s. He placed fifth at the World Uni Games with 7.84m.
Chris reflected on this time.
“As many young athletes do, I was on a yearly upward trajectory up until 2018 and expected to keep it going. Unfortunately for a multitude of reasons I lost my way with jumping and wasn’t able to execute a jump without over rotating and losing a lot of distance. You could say I had the yips.
“This slowly started to turn in 2020 and 2021 where I got back jumping over 8 but I still didn’t feel like I was jumping as good as I was capable of.
It had consequences.
“Unfortunately because of this I narrowly missed Olympic selection.”
After plateauing for a couple of years with a technical issue, he bounded to new levels in 2022, including in one competition exceeding 8 metres on every attempt, with a best of 8.21m. Mid-year he was selected in the long jump for the Commonwealth Games and World Championships. A PB 100m of 10.27, saw him also selected in the 4x100m relay for the Commonwealth Games.
In his debut at the world championships, he leapt 7.83m to place 16th, while battling an injury. Two weeks later he was ninth in the long jump final, after a qualifying round jump of 7.76m.
In 2023 Chris was regularly around the 8-metre mark. In Europe he jumped 8.19m windy with a slightly illegal wind of 2.2m/s. In August he was named in his 6th National team for Budapest 2023 World championships. At the championships he leapt 7.99m in the qualifying round to miss the final by 1cm.
Post Budapest he made the tough decision to moves coaches, to Sydney-based Alex Stewart. Chris remains good friend with his former coach John Boas who supported the move.
Other sports: Played nine years of local junior AFL for Keilor and Taylors Lakes Football Club…Biggest challenge: Having “the yips” with my jumping for almost three seasons and having doubts that I may never reach the potential I believed I had. Was a real mental battle but I think I learnt a lot about long jump and a lot about myself…Favorite Jumpers: Mitchell Watt and Miltos Tentoglou…Most influential in career: My former coaches John B and John G, the brains behind the operation, have set the standard on the track and in the gym for many years…Advice to your young self: Enjoy yourself, don’t take the losses personally, you’ll grow one day…Hobbies: Watching sports and playing video games, in particular watching my footy team Carlton and playing Call of Duty…Education: Degree in Business (Marketing) at RMIT University 2018…Occupation: Full time Media Analyst at Wavermaker Australia …Interesting Facts: Has Greek and Macedonian heritage.
@ 3 June 2024 David.tarbotton@athletics.org.au
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