When the year 2021 was turning into 2022, the creative Košice “street athletics” meeting JBL Jump Fest was breaking records on social networks. Six months since the end of the meeting, short athletic videos from the competition have become global hits on Instagram and TikTok. An incredible 13.5 million fans saw them!
“On average, they were viewed every three seconds and were liked by almost 700,000 spectators,” recalls Stanislav Návesňák, the founder of the meeting. “During this period, Košice’s JBL Jump Fest became probably the most watched athletics meeting on social networks in the world. It is the result of purposeful marketing, as the meeting has not been able to rely on promotion in traditional electronic media since the beginning but has had to focus on online presentation. “
The seventh edition of the popular event is already knocking on the door, as it is moving from September to June. The organizing team from the civic association Atletika Košice will organize a jumping and sprinting event in the heart of Košice near the iconic St. Elisbaeth’s Cathedral on June 15th, 2022. This shift means the possibility of extending the main two-hour program to later evening hours.
Thanks to the worldwide response on social networks, organizers noticed increased interest from the athletes from abroad. Therefore, they also open the possibility to register for foreign competitors who does not achieve top athletes performances in the Elite category, but at the same time meet the performance limits for the new open categories.
Because of this interest organizers created the JBL Jump Fest Open category for both jump and sprint disciplines.As the capacity of the competitors is limited, the event managers Dana and Jana Velďáková will choose from the registered athletes.
Registration for the JBL Jump Fest Open is already open on the American athletic portal Roster Athletics, which is the new technological partner of JBL Jump Fest, so fans can check the results online in the Roster Athletics app.
Another novelty is the change in length in sprints from 60 yards to 60 meters. “We took this step in order for the athletes to be able to gain points in the world rankings, which has an impact on qualifying for top events,” explained Stanislav Návesňák, a former Czech-Slovak representative in the 400m hurdles.