ORONO – Former University of Maine track and field long jump star Viktoryia Rybalko will compete in several competitions this winter with the goal of making the Ukrainian national team and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

In September Rybalko, a 2003 UMaine graduate, placed 11th in the long jump with a jump of 6.77 meters at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, Japan. She ended the season as the 23rd-ranked woman in the world and her long-jump performance in Osaka was the 55th best in 2007.

She was fourth in the world during the 2007 indoor season, during which she jumped a 6.74 at a competition Jan. 28 in Moscow.

The 24-year-old Rybalko, who is also the Ukrainian national champion at 6.87 meters, will now compete at the indoor and outdoor championships in the Ukraine in order to make the national team.

Lyudmila Blonska was the only other Ukrainian long jumper ahead of Rybalko in the 2007 outdoor rankings. Blonska’s top jump of 6.88 meters, also in Osaka, put her 12th overall.

Rybalko, who arrived in Orono as a 16-year-old and was 20 when she graduated, set multiple records on the track and field.

In her senior year, Rybalko placed second at the NCAA outdoor championships (21-5 1/4). She also won the America East, New England and ECAC championships and was the top qualifier at the NCAA East Region qualifying meet.

She holds the UMaine and America East records in the long jump, and also won the triple jump at the America East championships in 2003.

Rybalko graduated from Maine with a double major in biochemistry and microbiology. She was a winner of the Dean Smith Award, which recognizes the male and female student-athletes who exhibit exemplary academic and athletic achievement along with leadership and character.

After leaving Maine, Rybalko went to the University of Rochester to work on her master’s degree in microbiology and immunology, and will return to the U.S. to complete work on her doctorate after the Olympics.