Malaika Mihambo is flying again. Untroubled by illness and injury, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic long jump champion won her sixth international title on the final day of the European Championships in Rome. Not only the distance of 7.22 meters, but also the luck, pride and ambition of the thirty-year-old exceptional athlete make her the favorite for the Paris Olympic Games in the summer. “I am very proud,” she said after the competition: “After all, this is the second longest jump of my career. I tried to jump further, but after a jump like that, the tension drops.”
With subtle make-up and dangling gold earrings, Malaika Mihambo already seemed ready for the award ceremony of this Italian-influenced championship. After 6.70 meters in the first attempt, she jumped half a meter further in the second – and thus won the competition. As in Doha 2019, when she won her first world championship, she is clearly the fastest of all long jumpers on the approach.
Since Wednesday evening, she has led the world rankings, four centimeters ahead of American Tara Davis-Woodhall, who had been first since February, and 28 centimeters ahead of Italian Larissa Iapichino, who came second on Wednesday – three centimeters ahead of Portuguese Agate de Sousa and Mikaelle Assani from Baden-Baden.
“I wanted to show that I could be counted on”
The difference between the jumpers in third and fourth place, which Assani had to make do with, was 16 centimeters in the second best attempts: 6.87 to 6.71 meters. Mikaelle Assani was happy with her 6.91 meters. “I wanted to show that I can be counted on,” she said. “Seven meters is definitely possible. That makes me confident for Paris.”
Malaika Mihambo also exceeded seven meters in her fifth attempt, by four centimeters, and finished the competition with a jump of 6.54 meters, her fourth valid attempt. She is European champion for the second time; she became world champion in Doha in 2019 and in Eugene in 2022. At the European Championships in Munich two years ago, she competed weakened by a corona infection and came second. The 2023 season ended before the World Championships in Budapest with a torn muscle fiber.
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The new-found strength does not only come from the serenity that comes from success and meditation. With her trainer Ulli Knapp, Mihambo has been doing strength training over the winter and has gained a kilo of muscle. She is making the most of her greatest strength, her run-up, like she hasn’t in a long time. Her steps have become so long, her run-up so fast, that the 1.4 meter headwind per second that prevailed during her best attempt had just the right braking effect. “If she had had a tailwind, she would have overstepped,” suspects Coach Knapp.
The athlete and coach had already determined in the spring that she was in the same shape as she was five years ago. Rome confirmed this. “The success has given me an immense motivational boost. I was already in a good mood. I felt it. Now I know that I am comparable to the Doha season again,” she said. Not only is the feeling of flying in Qatar back, but the happiness is also like it was back then: “I got goosebumps again at the awards ceremony, like in Doha.”
The prospects for Paris are promising. They haven’t exhausted their training yet, said Mihambo, “haven’t pulled out all the stops yet.” In the two months leading up to the Summer Games, she will work on increasing her strength and speed and refining her technique: “I’m excited to see where this can lead.”
The javelin thrower Julian Weber, who could have contributed a second gold medal to the German team’s performance on the final evening, is also relying on further training after being surpassed by the Czech Jakub Vadlejch in the last round. With 85.94 metres, he had led from the first round, exceeded eighty metres with each of his six throws, then Vadlejch threw 88.65 metres. The 19-year-old 90-metre thrower Max Dehning came twelfth with 76.16 metres. He said he was happy that he had been able to learn.
In addition to Mihambo and Weber, pole vaulter Oleg Zernikel and the two men’s relay teams were also successful at the European Championship final in Rome. Zernikel jumped 5.82 meters in Armand Duplantis’ victory (6.10) and came third. The sprinters crossed the finish line in 38.52 seconds, as did the 400-meter runners in 3:00.82 minutes. The Italians won the 4×100 meters (37.82), and the Belgians won the 4×400 meters (2:59.84). The sprint relay team led by Gina Lückenkemper came fourth.
