Sport European Athletics Championships
Mihambo wins gold – “Goosebumps! The second best jump in my life”
Status: 00:14 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Malaika Mihambo positions herself for Paris
What: REUTERS
With an incredibly good distance, Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo won gold at the European Championships. The German team almost won a second European Championship title this Wednesday. They also won silver and three bronze medals.
She has won everything there is to win in athletics, but this triumph on Wednesday evening in Rome is one of the most special of all for Malaika Mihambo because of the impressive performance with which she was crowned European long jump champion.
The 30-year-old from LK Kurpfalz won the European Championship title with an outstanding 7.22 meters, just as she did in Berlin in 2018, giving the German athletics team its first gold on the last day of these championships. The Olympic champion and two-time world champion was only eight centimeters behind her best distance. She had only jumped further when she won the World Championship title five years ago in Doha.
She now leads the world best list for the year, ahead of the American Tara Davis-Woodhall (7.18 metres). “It’s amazing,” she said afterwards on ZDF. “Goosebumps! That’s the second best jump of my life.”
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And there was even more potential. “Now,” added Mihambo, “I’m even more excited about Paris.” The Olympic Games begin there on July 26. Second behind Mihambo was the Italian Larissa Iapichino with 6.94 meters. Third place went to the Portuguese Agate de Sousa (6.91 meters). The second German finalist, Mikaelle Assani, came fourth with 6.91 meters.
“Germany, who would have thought?” cheers the team
Led by the outstanding Mihambo, Germany’s athletes celebrated a happy ending in Rome’s Olympic Stadium on the last day of the European Championships. The 30-year-old was not the only German medal winner that evening: despite failing to defend his title, javelin thrower Julian Weber proudly flexed his muscles after 85.94 meters and was happy with second place. “Of course I would have liked to defend my title, but I’m super happy with silver,” said the 29-year-old. He was only beaten by the Czech Jakub Vadlejch, who overtook him with 88.65 meters in the last attempt.
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19-year-old Max Dehning from Leverkusen, who amazed everyone this year with a 90-meter throw and exceeded 80 meters several times, finished twelfth with 76.16 meters.
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Muscles against body fat
And then the German men’s relay team shone. With a brilliant relay performance over 4×400 meters, the quartet surprisingly secured bronze. “Germany, who would have thought it?” said Manuel Sanders. Together with Jean Paul Bredau, Marc Koch and hurdle specialist Emil Agyekum, he was only a hundredth of a second slower than Italy in 3:00.82 minutes. The victory went to the Belgians.
Completely over the moon: the German bronze quartet over 4×400 meters
What: REUTERS
While the women’s 4×100-meter relay team, which had sensationally celebrated gold at the European Championships two years ago, ended up fifth, the German men also celebrated in the sprint relay. Kevin Kranz, Owen Ansah, Deniz Almas and Lucas Ansah-Peprah crossed the finish line after 38.52 seconds and thus also took bronze. The hosts from Italy, including Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, secured gold in 37.82 seconds. The Dutch came second in 38.46 seconds.
At the very end of these championships, another German athlete celebrated: pole vaulter Oleg Zernikel mastered 5.82 meters and shared third place with the Turk Ersu Sasma. World record holder Armand Duplantis won at the end of the European Championships with 6.10 meters ahead of the Greek Emmanouil Karalis (5.87 meters).
