Germany’s Malaika Mihambo won her 11th major championship medal, taking silver in the women’s long jump at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.
In a repeat of the Paris Olympics, Mihambo was beaten to gold by USA’s Tara Davis-Woodall who landed a world lead of 7.13m.
Consistent series
Mihambo, champion in Doha 2019 and Oregon 2022, produced a brilliantly consistent series including consecutive leaps of 6.92m, 6.95m and 6.99m in the second third and fourth rounds.
But she couldn’t breach the seven metre mark and had to concede second best to the American who opened with 7.08m before her fourth round gold medal winning leap.
France’s Hilary Kpatcha was fourth with 6.82m, just 10cm behind bronze medallist Natalia Linares of Colombia won bronze with 6.92m.
"Best competition of the season"
"It was the best competition of the season - that is all can hope for," said Mihambo afterwards. "I tried to put everything together. I had some weaknesses but tonight I got over them. I was very close to taking my third gold from a world championships because my last two attempts were my best but with small fouls.
"During this competition I learned to how to come back to myself. During qualification I was focused but I was seeing too much of what was going on outside myself. Today was the opposite."
