For months, Malaika Mihambo struggled with her timing between approach and take-off. It was worth it: In Tokyo, she finally cracked the 7-meter mark again and secured the gold medal.
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 on Tuesday in the last attempt with 7.00 meters. “The competition only ends after the sixth attempt. I would have liked to have fought my way in the fifth or fourth attempt so that I don’t get into this unsightly position in the sixth attempt of having to wait and see what the others do with it,” said Mihambo on ZDF.
Silver won the four-time world champion and London Olympic champion Brittney Reese from the USA with 6.97 meters ahead of the world’s best of the year Ese Brume from Nigeria. “The most important thing was just to stick with it, never to lose faith and to know that I still have one last chance and then to seize it,” said Mihambo.
Timing-Problem by Malaika Mihambo
It is the second medal for the German athletes after silver from the Potsdam discus thrower Kristin Pudenz.
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.
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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