It was very noticeable during the men's high jump at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich just how much care and regard the winner - Italy's joint Olympic champion Gianmarco Tamberi - had for the bronze medallist, Ukraine's Andriy Protsenko.

A month earlier at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, the bond between the two men had also been patently strong as Protsenko beat his Italian rival to the bronze on countback after both had cleared a season's best of 2.33 metres.

In an interview in Oregon, Protsenko acknowledged how much support he had received from the Italian in the wake of the traumatic circumstances in which he had to prepare for the global event.

Protsenko lives with his wife and daughter in Kherson, which received some of the most severe punishment in the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.

Protsenko revealed that he had spent nearly 40 days in his occupied hometown before he was able to safely leave it, and he created improvised facilities in a nearby village in order to continue with his training. 

After he managed to leave Ukraine to prepare for the Worlds, he first trained in Portugal and then in Spain before arriving in Germany.

So huge credit is due to an athlete who, at the age of 34, managed to reach two major podiums in a year when his life, and that of his family, had been turned upside down.

Protsenko had been clearing the bar in elite competition for 15 years by then. His first big success came in 2007 at the European Junior Championships, where, aged 19, he took silver with a clearance of 2.21m.

Four years later, having competed at the World and European Championships, where he failed to reach the final, he took part in his first Summer Universiade, finishing 11th in the competition in Shenzen in China.

By the time he took part in the 2013 Summer Universiade in Kazan in Russia, he had the extra experience of an Olympic Games behind him, having finished ninth in the final at London 2012 Games. 

In Kazan he and home jumper Sergey Mudrov both cleared a personal best of 2.31m, with Protsenko having to settle for silver on countback.

The experience clearly bolstered his development as, the following year, he enjoyed some of his greatest successes, winning silver at the World Indoor Championships, where he cleared 2.36m, and the European Championships, where he went over at 2.33m.

At the Lausanne Diamond League meeting he achieved his personal best of 2.40m, a height that only five men have bettered outdoors. Five years later he earned another big success in the Diamond League as he won the final in Zurich with a season's best of 2.32m.

When the pandemic took its grip it might have marked the end of a successful career - but once that situation altered Protsenko moved swiftly to dispel such an idea.