by Larry Eder
One centimeter is difference between gold, silver and bronze!
Miltiadis Tentoglou opened the long jump with a leap of 8.22 meters. In the next attempt, Italy’s wunderkid, Mattia Furlani leaped 8.22 meters. Neither improved. So, the final decision on the medals came down to second best jumps. Tentoglou had an 8.15m second best and Furlani had a 8.10m second best. Carey McLeod of Jamaica pushed the rest of the field out of bronze medal contention, with his jump in 8.21m.
The long jump was super competitive. Two long jumpers at 8.22 meters and the second best jumps are 8.15m and 8.10m from Tentoglou and Furlani. Then, Casey McLeod, who was 4th in Budapest, jumps 8.21m. to move into third.
The long jump is a tough technical event. The field included Olympic, European, and World Champions, but not all the same person! It was a tough field, and the Greek star had to fight for the entire six jumps to take gold.
This observer noted that Tentoglou seemed unhappy. Not sure what it was about until I read his flash quote. Miltiadis Tentoglou is unhappy with the changes suggested for the Long Jump by World Athletics without speaking with any athletes, current or heritage. The Greek super star sees this as a slap in the face and the destruction of his event.
The Greek star was an unhappy camper, and he noted that in his flash quote:
“This result does not mean anything to me. I did not like the competition today, it was really bad for me. I jumped terribly. The morning final is like a ‘dog shit’. I do not care much, but I was lucky to win. I am just a lucky guy. It was very close. I hope everyone had some fun today. At least, it was exciting at the end. This track is one of my favourites so it was good, similar to Budapest. I was not excited about winning this title, and I do not think it will help me prepare for the summer. It was just another competition for me. I consider a long jump one of the hardest events because of the board and the accuracy you need. You need to run like a sprinter to hit the board perfectly – this is the difficult part of the long jump. The jump itself is easy. The hard part is the run-up. So if they want to remove this, the long jump would be the easiest event. If that happens, I will not do the long jump anymore. I will be a triple jumper.”
