An epic long-jump competition – with a sting in the tail! (Roma Golden Gala 2025)

An epic long-jump competition – with a sting in the tail!

Field events often seem the poor relation in Diamond Leagues. There was a magnificent 45 minutes in the European indoors earlier this year when the track was empty and we had Men’s Pole Vault at one side of the arena and women’s triple jump at the other. As they finished they were replaced by women’s high jump and men’s long jump. Still not a track race in sight! Now I understand the constraints of fitting a Diamond League programme into a 2 hour slot for television, but it can result in field events sometimes being marginalised.

When it comes to long jump, there has also been the question of the format. Should everyone jump in a set order? Should the first 5 jumps just be a qualifying for a final one leap jump off? We tried having the three leaders getting an extra jump, jumping in order 3,2,1 to see if 3 and 2 could pass the leader. But if they did not then sometimes the leader opted not to take the final jump and the competition ended in an anticlimax.  We won’t dignify the plan to get rid of the take-off board with a comment!

I cannot remember a more exciting long jump finale then the Golden Gala 2025. After  four rounds we had five athletes beyond 8 meters.

Tentoglou 8.10

Adcock 8.07

Lescay 8.06

Furlani 8.04

McLeod 8.01

In round 5 McLeod could not improve and stayed fifth. Lescay repeated his 8.06 but when Furlani jumped 8.07, the Italian was in the final three and not Lescay.

Matteo Furlani, jumping first in round 6 and with the support of the home crowd, jumped 8.13 to take the lead.. Liam Adcock produced an incredible 8.34 PR.  Miltiadis Tentaglou, who had led from round two could not respond and finished third.

Liam Adcock  from Australia commented: “My first Diamond League win. I was second in my first Diamond League and first in the second. Also with a PR. I was not feeling that great when I was coming into it but then I felt the crowd and I really appreciate the crowd support. It was a great competition tonight and the PB is awesome. It was pretty cool to save the best for the last. I am old now  – [ Is 28 old?] – which makes it pretty difficult to get any interest from sponsors. But I just keep showing up and do what I can. I have had a lot of years with injuries,…