Tuesday, August 03, 2021
“Another very last chance”
Mihambo leaps to gold in the last attempt
21 years after Heike Drechsler, Germany has another long jump Olympic champion: Malaika Mihambo triumphs in Tokyo with 7.00 meters. The world champion achieved the gold jump in a gripping final in the last attempt.
The world champion Malaika Mihambo managed a golden point landing in the long jump thriller in Tokyo. In the Olympic final, the 27-year-old from the LG Kurpfalz triumphed in the last attempt with 7.00 meters. The silver medal went to the four-time world champion and London Olympic champion Brittney Reese from the USA, who was leading up to the fifth round, ahead of the world’s best of the year Ese Brume from Nigeria (both 6.97 meters). It is the second medal for the German athletes after silver from the Potsdam discus thrower Kristin Pudenz.
“The competition only ends after the sixth attempt. It was important not to lose faith. I knew I had one last chance,” said Mihambo, who experienced an unbelievable ups and downs in a heat battle at 36 degrees in Tokyo in the morning experienced on ZDF. Before the last round she was still in third place with 6.95 meters.
For months it was anything but certain whether the two-time “Sportswoman of the Year” would even succeed in the big gold coup. On the way to the medal fight, she had searched in vain for months for the perfect timing between run-up and take-off in order to overcome the seven-meter barrier again. At the beginning of July she finally managed the hoped-for jump to 7.02 meters in Stockholm – albeit with too much wind support.
While Mihambo flew weightlessly over seven meters after her 7.30 meter set at the 2019 World Cup in Doha, she lost the ease of jumping after the pandemic break. The shortening of the run-up to protect her injured back from 20 to 16 steps and the return to the long run-up came close to the Olympics as a tremor.
“The body does not forget anything”
A release was therefore that the Olympic fourth from Rio in the qualification in Tokyo with 6.98 meters made it safely into the final and did not get as far as before in the season. “I was sure that the widths would also come when I was on the board,” said Mihambo – even to a similar width as at the World Cup two years ago: “The body doesn’t forget anything.”
Mailaika Mihambo is the fourth German Olympic champion in the long jump since 1948. Heide Rosendahl-Ecker won her first gold at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich. Four years later, Angela Voigt succeeded in doing this in Montreal for what was then the GDR. Heike Drechsler celebrated a double success in 1992 in Barcelona and 2000 in Sydney. The now 46-year-old was always convinced that Mihambo could succeed her and gave her a simple piece of advice: “You just have to get it on the board.”
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