Irati Mitxelena
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | 3 July 1998 |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Athletics |
Event | Long jump |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Personal best(s) | Long jump: 6.76m (San Sebastian, 2026) |
Irati Mitxelena (born 3 July 1998) is a Spanish long jumper. She won the Spanish Athletics Championships in 2023 and competed at the 2025 World Athletics Championships.[1]
Biography
Initially a judo practitioner, Mitxelena came to athletics relatively late, but won the Spanish Under-20 Championship in the triple jump before focusing purely on the long jump. She competed for Spain in the junior level, including at the 2019 European Athletics U23 Championships.[2]
She won the senior Spanish Athletics Championships in Nerja in 2022. That year, she competed for Spain at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, Germany, missing a place in the final by 10 centimetres and placing fifteenth overall.[3][4]
In March 2025, she represented Spain at the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands. [5] In August 2025, while competing in Guadalajara. Mitxelena jumped 6.70m, a new personal best.[6] In September, she competed at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, without advancing to the final.[7][8]
In January 2026, she set a new personal best of 6.76 metres in the long jump while competing at the Gipuzkoa Championships in San Sebastián. However, as a non-ratified event by World Athletics the distance, an automatic qualifying standard for the 2026 World Indoor Championships, did not count for the rankings.[9] The following month, she jumped 6.70 metres to finish runner-up at the World Athletics Indoor Tour event in Madrid.[10] In February 2026, she also finished runner-up at the Spanish Indoor Championships in Valencia, although she was leading the competition prior to the final jump of Fatima Diame.[11] She place twelfth at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland.[12][13]
Personal life
She is from San Sebastian in the Basque Country and outside athletics works in neuroscience having studied in the United States at the University of Cincinnati between 2016 and 2020 and completed a master's degree in Spain in 2021.[14][8][2]
References
- ^ "Irati Mitxelena". World Athletics. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ a b Rodriguez, Nestor (19 March 2023). "Irati Mitxelena, between athletics and research". noticiasdegipuzkoa.eus. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "Spanish high jumper Fatima Diame will miss the European Athletics Championships in Munich due to injury". Diariosigloxxi.com. 3 August 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ "Irati Mitxelena, décimo quinta en el Europeo de Munich". Diariosigloxxi.com. Retrieved 1 March 2025.
- ^ "European Athletics Indoor Championships". World Athletics. 9 March 2025. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ "Lescay soars with his best jump as a Spaniard, and Irati leaps towards Tokyo". labolsadelcorredor.com. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ "World Athletics Championships, Tokyo 2025". World Athletics. 18 September 2025. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
- ^ a b Arribas, Carlos (12 September 2025). "Irati Mitxelena and Carlos Sáez, when athletics isn't the only thing in life". El Pais. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ Garcia, Alvaro (18 January 2026). "Irati Mitxelena flies above the world championship qualifying standard without a prize and shatters her personal best in San Sebastian". Runners World.
- ^ "World Indoor Tour Gold Madrid 2026". World Athletics. 6 February 2026.
- ^ "Fatima Diame wins an epic long jump gold medal in the final jump against Irati Mitxelena in Valencia". Runners World. 28 February 2026. Retrieved 1 March 2026.
- ^ "World Athletics Indoor Championships". World Athletics. 21 March 2026. Retrieved 23 March 2026.
- ^ "Spain's 22 picks for Kujawy Pomorze". atletismorfea.es. 10 March 2026. Retrieved 11 March 2026.
- ^ "Irati Mitxelena brings us closer to the long jump in the 'Get Active' campaign launched by Basque Team and Ausolan to promote physical activity from childhood". Basque Team. 11 May 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2026.