2019 European U23 long jump champion Hilary Kpatcha broke the seven metre-barrier for the first time at the Tsatoumas Long Jump Street meeting in Kalamata, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver event, on Friday (30) evening.
Kpatcha, who reached both the European and Olympic long jump finals last year, sailed out to a lifetime best of 7.02m on her first attempt to seal the victory and move up to second on the 2025 world outdoor list.
She becomes just the second French athlete in history to break the seven metre-barrier and moves within three centimetres of Eunice Barber’s enduring national record of 7.05m which dates back to 2003.
Behind Kpatcha, 2023 European indoor champion Jazmin Sawyers’ return from an Achilles rupture continued to gather momentum. The Brit improved her season’s best to 6.89m, the third longest jump of her career and also the qualifying mark for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
Former world and European U20 champion Maja Askag from Sweden completed the top three with a season’s best of 6.73m - just two centimetres shy of her lifetime best - in the sixth round.
There was more Swedish success on the men’s side with multiple world and European medallist Thobias Montler landing a season’s best of 8.25m in the first round to seal the victory from France’s Jules Pommery with 8.07m.
The Tsatoumas Long Jump Street is named after the now-retired Greek long jumper Louis Tsatoumas who won European indoor and outdoor silver medals and still holds the national record with 8.66m.