Greek becomes first man since Carl Lewis to win back-to-back Olympic long jump gold medals
Miltiadis Tentoglou just can’t stop winning major titles.
The 26-year-old is the reigning world long jump champion both indoors and out, while the same applies when it comes to the European Championships. He will now need to make space in his trophy cabinet for a second Olympic gold medal, too, becoming the first man to win back-to-back titles in this event since Carl Lewis.
A second-round leap of 8.48m (0.0) at the Stade de France secured that prize – a performance he described as “decent”. Yet the Greek was hardly disappointed, dedicating his success to a nation at the heart of the Olympic movement.
“I would say this Miltiadis Tentoglou adds to his medal pile in Paris is for my country,” he said. “Greece is the country that invented the Olympics, so I am happy to do it for them.”
Wayne Pinnock’s biggest jump of the night also came with his second attempt, a leap of 8.36m (-0.2) giving him second spot and a convincing follow-up to his world silver from last summer, as well as underlining Jamaica’s growing strength in the horizontal jumps.
The development of the 19-year-old Italian Mattia Furlani also continues at pace, the world indoor and European silver medallist now able to call himself an Olympic medallist thanks to an opening jump of 8.34m (-1.0) that had put him into an early lead.
The British champion Jacob Fincham-Dukes placed fifth with 8.14m (-1.4).
“It is something special out there,” he said. “We have 70,000 people all going electric. It is other worldly. There was a sea of British flags. You almost feel personalised with each of them. I had them right there behind me and it felt amazing.”
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