Career
He competed internationally for the Soviet Union, the Unified Team, and finally Ukraine. His personal best of 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in) was set indoors in 1985 and he equalled that mark in 1993. His final international appearance came at the 1993 IAAF World Indoor Championships.
He later set an outdoor best of 2.29 m (7 ft 6 in), juumping in Tashkent in September that year.
The best jump of his career came in 1985 at the age of twenty. In Kiev in February he cleared 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in) and later set an outdoor best of 2.31 m (7 ft 63⁄4 in) in Sofia in Bulgaria.
He did not compete internationally in the second half of the 1980s but reappeared on the European scene in the 1990 season with a best of 2.31 m (7 ft 63⁄4 in) and followed with a jump of 2.30 m (7 ft 61⁄2 in) in 1991. Sergiyenko began competing for Ukraine in the 1992 season, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
This change marked a resurgence in the athlete"s form.
He was victorious at the Brothers Znamensky Memorial in an outdoor best-equalling mark of 2.31 m. He was selected for the Unified Team at the 1992 Summer Olympics, managed only a jump of 2.20 m (7 ft 21⁄2 in) in the qualifiers on his Olympic debut. His first medal senior gold medal followed at the 1992 IAAF World Cup in Havana, where he beat home favourite Javier Sotomayor to the title.
The best outdoor performance of his career came in June 1993 in the form of a clearance of 2.32 m (7 ft 71⁄4 in) in Nikopol, Ukraine.
This proved to be the last time in his career that the Ukrainian cleared the two metres and thirty centimetres mark. Reaching his mid-thirties, the 1998 season was the last in which he jumped over 2.20 m and he retired from athletics in 1999.
High jump outdoor – 2.32 m (7 ft 71⁄4 in) (1993) High jump indoor – 2.34 m (7 ft 8 in) (1985 and 1993).
