Despite her great jump when she won the World Championship title, Malaika Mihambo feels that she has not yet reached her performance limit. Javelin thrower Julian Weber wants to improve for the Olympics.
After her phenomenal jump to gold, European long jump champion Malaika Mihambo believes that even greater distances are possible this Olympic season. The 30-year-old achieved the second best jump of her career and the longest in the world this year with 7.22 meters in Rome.
The Olympic champion, two-time world champion and now two-time European champion is travelling to the Summer Games in Paris with a very good feeling, where gold will be at stake in early August. “I’m looking forward to training for the next two months because I know that we haven’t pulled out all the stops in terms of training technique,” said Mihambo, although she came within eight centimetres of her best distance. At her first World Championship title in 2019 in Doha, she jumped 7.30 metres.
Injury from last year overcome
In Rome, she said she got goosebumps after her second attempt. She said her performance could not be rated highly enough. However, Mihambo was typically reserved about being the favorite for the Olympics – she wants to look at her own performance first.
“In the long jump, even the best form is of no use if you go two millimetres over the line. But it is also clear that I give everything in a championship until the last jump is over,” said the Heidelberg native, who has regained her old strength after tearing a muscle fibre last year.
Weber: “Not the prettiest throws”
Javelin thrower Julian Weber was delighted with silver and his second international medal, although Czech Jakub Vadlejch overtook him in the last attempt and prevented the Mainzer from winning his second European Championship title in a row. With 88.65 meters, Vadlejch took revenge for the European Championship defeat two years ago in Munich, after Weber had led for a long time with 85.94 from the first attempt.
The 29-year-old from Mainz wants to improve a few things before the Olympic Games. “I can still do a lot technically. To be honest, those weren’t the prettiest throws today,” said Weber. He wants to gain more routine and confidence.
German team with eleven medals
Overall, the German team won five medals on the sixth and final day of the European Championships, thanks to Mihambo and Weber, as well as bronze for pole vaulter Oleg Zernikel and the two men’s relay teams. There were eleven medals in total, with Mihambo taking the only title. At the European Championships at home two years ago, there were seven gold and silver medals and two bronze medals. The clear number one in Rome was host Italy with eleven titles and a total of 24 medals.
Source: Stern
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