WITH A SECOND-ROUND effort of 27-10 (8.48), Miltiádis Tentóglou added to his burgeoning collection of medals by defending his Olympic title.
The Greek, who is also the reigning world and European champion, was put under some early pressure when Italy’s teenage talent Mattia Furlani opened with 27-4½ (8.34), just 4cm shy of his 27-6 (8.38) WJR when he got the European silver behind Tentóglou in June.
Tentóglou responded with 27-1¾ (8.27) on his first attempt. In the second stanza, Furlani landed at 27-¾ (8.25) before Tentóglou mustered his energies and flew out to 27-10 (8.48) to take the lead. That proved to be the winning distance.
Later in the second round, Jamaica’s 3-time NCAA champion Wayne Pinnock landed at 27-5¼ (8.36) to overtake Furlani and move up to 2nd.
None of the three eventual medalists improved over the remaining four rounds but the competition was not short of entertainment.
Tentóglou put together jumps of 27-¼ (8.24), 27-5¼ (8.36) and 27-3¼ (8.31) in rounds 3, 4 and 5 before fouling the very last jump of the night with the gold already won while Furlani had another jump of 27-4½ in the fifth round to scare Pinnock.
Back-to-back titles for Tentóglou mean that he joins a very select group of repeat winners with only Carl Lewis having more consecutive wins with his 4-in-a-row streak between ’84 and ’96.
“It’s a great achievement. I am very happy, but very tired. My distance was not bad, not good,” Tentóglou assessed.
“I have a special personal reason that I wanted to jump 8.75m [28-8½], but today it was impossible to jump so far. It was not the best conditions. The wind was difficult at times.
“I didn’t think my jump was going to be enough because the other guys are very talented and capable. I was pushing throughout to do more.”
One of Tentóglou’s “personal reasons” for going for a big distance is that despite all his honors and accolades, he still doesn’t have the Greek NR to his name. That belongs to Loúis Tsátoumas and his 28-5 (8.66) from ’07.
Tentóglou’s best is currently half-an-inch shy of that mark, the 28-4½ (8.65) he spanned to win the European title in June.
For only the third time ever, after the boycotted Moscow ’80 Games and Beijing ’08, there was no U.S. representative in the final.
Olympic Trials winner Jeremiah Davis and Malcolm Clemons jumped 25-8¼ (7.83) and 25-4 (7.72) but it was not enough to progress with 25-11 (7.90) needed to make the final. Jarrion Lawson had three fouls.
MEN’S LONG JUMP RESULTS
FINAL (August 06)
(temperature 81-77F/27-25C; humidity 52-58%)
(wind readings ranged from +1.7 to –1.8)
1. Miltiádis Tentóglou (Gre) 27-10 (8.48)
(27-1¾, 27-10, 27-½, 27-5¼, 27-3¼, f) (8.27, 8.48, 8.24, 8.36, 8.31, f);
2. Wayne Pinnock (Jam) 27-5¼ (8.36)
(25-8¾, 27-5¼, 26-2¾, 26-5, 27-½, 26-7¾) (7.84, 8.36, 7.99, 8.05, 8.24, 8.12);
3. Mattia Furlani (Ita) 27-4½ (8.34) (x, =4 WJ)
(27-4½, 27-¾, f, f, 27-4½, 27-1¾) (8.34, 8.25, f, f, 8.34, 8.27);
4. Simon Ehammer (Swi) 26-11 (8.20)
(f, 26-11, 26-7¼, 26-0, f, f) (f, 8.20, 8.11, 7.92, f, f);
5. Jacob Fincham-Dukes (GB) 26-8½ (8.14)
(26-1, 26-8½, f, f, f, 25-¾) (7.95, 8.14, f, f, f, 7.64);
6. Simon Batz (Ger) 26-5¾ (8.07)
(24-10½, 26-5¾, 25-6¾, 25-3½, 26-1, 26-¾) (7.58, 8.07, 7.79, 7.71, 7.95, 7.94);
7. Mingkun Zhang (Chn) 26-5¾ (8.07)
(25-7½, f, 26-5¾, f, 26-¼, f) (7.81, f, 8.07, f, 7.93, f);
8. Jianan Wang (Chn) 26-4¼ (8.03)
(26-1½, f, 26-0, f, p, 26-4¼) (7.96, f, 7.92, f, p, 8.03);
9. Filip Pravdica (Cro) 25-11 (7.90)
(25-4, 25-11, 25-10) (7.72, 7.90, 7.87);
10. Radek Juška (CzR) 25-8¼ (7.83)
(25-6¼, 25-2¾, 25-8¼) (7.78, 7.69, 7.83);
11. Arnovis Dalmero (Col) 25-8¼ (7.83)
(f, 25-8¼, 25-4¾) (f, 7.83, 7.74);
12. Carey McLeod (Jam) 25-8 (7.82)
(24-7¾, 23-6, 25-8) (7.51, 7.16, 7.82).
| * = progression of the leading jump; ¶ = athlete’s best of the day | |||
| first 3 rounds | |||
| Zhang | 7.81* | f | 8.07¶ |
| McLeod | 7.51 | 7.16 | 7.82¶ |
| Furlani | 8.34* | 8.25 | f |
| Batz | 7.58 | 8.07¶ | 7.79 |
| Ehammer | f | 8.20¶ | 8.11 |
| Dalmero | f | 7.83¶ | 7.74 |
| Fincham-Dukes | 7.95 | 8.14¶ | f |
| Pravdica | 7.72 | 7.90¶ | 7.87 |
| Tentóglou | 8.27 | 8.48*¶ | 8.24 |
| Juška | 7.78 | 7.69 | 7.83¶ |
| Pinnock | 7.84 | 8.36¶ | 7.99 |
| Wang | 7.96 | f | 7.92 |
| rounds 4 & 5 | |||
| Wang | f | p | |
| Batz | 7.71 | 7.95 | |
| Zhang | f | 7.93 | |
| Fincham-Dukes | f | f | |
| Ehammer | 7.92 | f | |
| Furlani | f | 8.34¶ | |
| Pinnock | 8.05 | 8.24 | |
| Tentóglou | 8.36 | 8.31 | |
| last round | |||
| Wang | 8.03¶ | ||
| Batz | 7.94 | ||
| Zhang | f | ||
| Fincham-Dukes | 7.64 | ||
| Ehammer | f | ||
| Furlani | 8.27 | ||
| Pinnock | 8.12 | ||
| Tentóglou | f | ||
QUALIFYING (August 04; auto-qualifier 26-9/8.15)
Qualifiers: Tentóglou 27-3¾ (8.32), Juška 26-9 (8.15), Wang 26-7¾ (8.12), Ehammer 26-6½ (8.09), Pravdica 26-4½ (8.04), Furlani 26-3½ (8.01), Pinnock & Fincham-Dukes 26-1½ (7.96), Zhang & Dalmero 26-0 (7.92), McLeod & Batz (Ger) 25-11 (7.90);
Non-qualifiers: Emiliano Lasa (Uru) & Bozhidar Saraboyukov (Bul) 25-10 (7.87), Jeremiah Davis (US) 25-8¼ (7.83), Thobias Montler (Swe) 25-8 (7.82), Yuki Hashioka (Jpn) 25-7½ (7.81), Chris Mitrevski (Aus) 25-6¾ (7.79), Tajay Gayle (Jam) 25-6¼ (7.78), Anvar Anvarov (Uzb) 25-6 (7.77), Malcolm Clemons (US) 25-4 (7.72), Yu-Tang Lin (Tai) & Jovan van Vuuren (SA) 25-3¼ (7.70), Yuhao Shi (Chn) 25-2½ (7.68), Alejandro A. Parada (Cub) 25-0 (7.62), J. Jeswin Aldrin (Ind) 24-11¾ (7.61), Liam Adcock (Aus) 24-9¾ (7.56), Tom Campagne (Fra) 24-7¾ (7.51), Mohammad Amin Al-Salami (ART (Syr)) 23-9 (7.24), Petr Meindlschmid (CzR) 22-10½ (6.97), Cheswill Johnson (SA) 14-8¾ (4.49);… 3f—Jarrion Lawson (US), Lucas dos Santos (Bra).