Malaika Mihambo was still difficult to orientate. The jump felt good, so she cheered with two fists fell up and a ray on the face. What gave way to a little disillusionment in the next moment: her second jump at the Istaf Indoor in Düsseldorf was a respectable 6.61 meters, but nothing more. And this type of confusion also experienced some of her competitors this Sunday, so it is probably at a world premiere: For the first time, jumping was tested by a so-called take-off zone, which is 40 centimeters wide instead of 20 centimeters Beam.
The newly tested type of measurement was responsible for the disorientation: Instead of measuring from a fixed point, the tip of the toe of the individual jump point was considered a orientation. Two landings on the same place in the sand could vary by up to 40 centimeters. “I found it interesting,” said Mihambo at the ARD microphone. The Olympic second of Paris found the idea “quite nice” to have more space to jump off, “no whole foot fits on the board with the normal regulation”.
Athletics at Olympics
:A veil of disappointment lies over Mihambo
The long jumper wins silver in an exhausting competition – but then suffers a kind of asthma attack and is exhausted from the stadium. For javelin thrower Julian Weber, the evening ends without a medal.
On this day, half athletics world looked at Düsseldorf, this test also dealt with the question: Is long jump with less precision still the same sport?
In the opinion of World Association President Coe, the jumping board is not one of the holy elements
A possible adaptation of the discipline has been discussed for a long time, statistics from previous years had the international Athletics Association World Athletics brooding: A third of the long jump attempts at the 2023 World Cup in Budapest was invalid, so the audience spent a lot of time when observing exceeding athletes. In order to be able to assert yourself in the age of Tikok and Co., you have to come up with something. “Our sport is 150 years old and there are sacred elements that we want to protect, but there are others who leave the public cold,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe last year. In his opinion, the bounce board is not one of the holy elements. Hence the idea: Will the long jump become more exciting when more valid attempts can be seen? And if you can no longer give away a long time on the board, but simply be measured by the foot of the athlete?
These ideas found headwinds as quickly as they were pronounced. The biggest critic among the athletes is the Greek Miliadis Tentoglou, repeated world champion and Olympic champion of Paris, who was already threatening to resign as a long jumper, the new zone should become the rule. Long jump is one of the most difficult disciplines precisely because of the necessary precision on the jump board, said Tentoglou – “the jump itself is easy”. The nine -time Olympic champion Carl Lewis immediately took care of the comparison with historical brands and noticed polemically that the basket would not be enlarged in basketball so that more hits were achieved. However, basketball is more rapidable over a longer period of time than in the long jump, where, after the attempts, 30 seconds and more often pass to widespread measurement without anything doing the system.
Malaika Mihambo has so far been a minority of athletes who were open to the attempts of innovation towards the innovation. Your motto: just try it out. “Optimal jumps are definitely more likely with the take-off zone,” she said. The definition of a “perfect jump” may now have to be revised. Mihambo has repeatedly driven the game with the precision into perfection in her career: whenever the pressure was greatest, she convinced with her mental strength. And that also meant hit the narrow bar at the crucial moment. What is not a sure -fire success at a start -up speed of more than 30 kilometers per hour, even with 40 centimeters.
This could be observed on Sunday, even with the take-off zone in Düsseldorf, there were five invalid attempts with 41 jumps-a lower quota. For the official world rankings, the widths of the usual set of rules were also measured with interesting differences. Mihambo won the competition with 6.87 meters, but after classic width measurement, however, it would only have been third with 6.39 meters. In addition, four attempts would have been invalid, while all their jumps were in the take-off zone.
Whether the laboratory test is established will be shown-in Düsseldorf the high-tech measurement caused problems in some places. “You noticed that there are still one or the other things that you might still have to revise,” said Malaika Mihambo. But work on it, every athlete knows that, is always better than a standstill.
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