Roko Farkas in the long jump at the World U20 Championships in Lima (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
“One injury caused the gold medal,” says Roko Farkas, reliving his journey to long jump glory at the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24.
Earlier in the season, the 19-year-old had planned to be all-in on the decathlon in Lima, his specialist event where he holds the Croatian U20 record with 7300. But in Budapest in mid-July, Farkas was doing a warm-up for the long jump when he landed awkwardly in the sand, having over-rotated in the air. The pit wasn’t evenly raked and his left arm came down on a raised lump of sand, the momentum of his body causing a dislocated shoulder.
He could see it jutting out as he took stock of the situation and so, there and then, he popped it back into place. “Nobody ever imagined someone’s shoulder would dislocate in the long jump,” he says. “It was a bit painful, but I knew it couldn’t stay in the front so I had to get it back in.”
He had about six weeks until the World U20 Championships and Farkas had the entry standards for the decathlon, 200m, 400m, 110m hurdles and long jump. But given the damage to his shoulder, the decathlon was out of the question. He took two weeks of rest, then began easing back into light training.
He and his coach, Patrik Koscak, decided his best bet was to focus on the long jump, given his personal best of 7.72m put him in contention with the chief contenders. “The long jump was the tightest of them all and we thought we had the biggest chance,” he says.
Soon enough, he was back jumping off full run-ups, and in Lima his singular focus paid off in spectacular style. In the qualification round, Farkas soared to a Croatian U20 and U23 long jump record of 8.15m (0.6m/s), adding a whopping 43cm to his PB. In the final, aided by a 2.4m/s tailwind, he leapt 8.17m, the longest jump in the history of the championships. It handed him victory by 24cm over Serbia’s Luka Boskovic.
Roko Farkas in the long jump at the World U20 Championships in Lima (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
Did he see those distances coming?
“No,” he says. “Maybe my coach (did) because he knows the best of me. We thought maybe 7.80m, 7.90m, which would be enough for silver, but the 8.15m in qualification really stunned me. I wasn’t expecting that even the slightest bit and 8.17m in the finals, I’m really happy with that jump. I knew it was huge from the take-off board and it was a truly surreal feeling. I’m still so stunned I won the gold.”
For Farkas, it marked a huge staging post on a journey that began 13 years ago when he first took up athletics. In his childhood, he did sprints and long jump and after changing training groups in his teens and realising he was “pretty good at everything”, he started targeting the decathlon.
He grew up in Nedelisce in the north of Croatia and is currently based in Zagreb, studying kinesiology at university. In 2022, Farkas finished 11th at the European U18 Championships in the decathlon, scoring 6979, and earlier that summer he set a Croatian U18 record of 7120. He also competed over 100m and 200m at the World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
Last year, he broke the Croatian U20 decathlon record with 7300 and his 2024 campaign started in flying fashion, Farkas twice breaking the Croatian U20 60m record indoors (6.74 and 6.71) and lowering the indoor 200m record to 21.09. Outdoors, he made his debut at the European Championships, clocking a Croatian senior 200m record of 20.70 in Rome. Across the summer, he smashed PBs in a variety of events.
Roko Farkas in the 200m at the Czech Indoor Gala (© Sonya Maleterova)
Juggling the workload required for the decathlon with his studies is no easy task. “It’s really, really hard putting together 10 events in two days and especially the training that goes behind it,” he says. “I feel there’s no event like it in athletics. We do two, three, four events in one training session – it’s a really hard process and not a lot of people make it.”
When it comes to role models in the decathlon, he says “there is only one answer: Kevin Mayer” and Farkas has long wanted to emulate the Frenchman’s achievements.
In Lima, he had his first realistic shot at a global title – just not in the event he was expecting. The qualification for the men’s long jump was the same morning the decathlon began and the following evening, as he was competing in the long jump final, the decathlon denouement was playing out on track, Farkas cheering on many of his friends and rivals in the 1500m from the in-field.
His performance in Lima qualified him for the long jump at next year’s European Indoor Championships, so Farkas will likely take to the runway there. When it comes to areas of improvement in the years ahead, he has a clear focus.
“The second day (of the decathlon) is not my best,” he says. “We have been working on the discus a lot; pole vault is not my strongpoint. The javelin is pretty good and the 1500m, we can’t really train for that. But the discus and pole vault are the main things we need to focus on. It’s a good thing they are technical disciplines and we can work on that really fast. I’m hoping we can get that right for next season.”
But with his leap into world-class territory in the long jump, while still a teenager, might he be tempted to leave the decathlon behind and focus on that in the years to come?
“No, I don’t think so,” he says. “The decathlon is my first love and I’m going to stick to it, definitely.”
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics
