PARIS: To say Miltiadis Tentoglou is in good form is something of an understatement and Greece's defending Olympic champion threw down the gauntlet in men’s long jump qualifying with a leap of 8.32 metres on Sunday, the only effort he needed.
Already this season Tentoglou has retained his world indoor and European outdoor titles and won all but one of the 11 competitions he has contested. He also improved his personal best to 8.65 metres, the finest by anyone for five years.
That came at the European Championships, where he achieved it twice in a remarkably consistent performance that included five jumps over 8.40 - the latter being a mark only two others have matched this year.
"I’m in very good shape, it was nothing for me and I feel very good so we’ll see now if anyone can challenge me,” Tentoglou, 26, said after his "one and done" on Sunday.
Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer (8.41) and Jamaican Wayne Pinnock (8.40) are the men in his slipstream on the season's world leading chart but Tentoglou’s focus is on a rather better known name in the sport - Carl Lewis.
The American who won four successive Olympic titles from 1984 to 1996 is the only man to have successfully defended it.
Tentoglou, who is also the world champion, aims to change that in Paris and on Sunday's showing, with nobody else in the field looking even close to him, he is in with a great chance.
"It would be amazing," he said of the prospect. "It would make me one of the best of all time. Maybe not the very best, but in terms of achievements. That is my extra motivation."
China’s Wang Jianan, who snatched the 2022 world gold from Tentoglou in the last round, has a season’s best of 8.12, while Czech Radek Juska produced a season’s best of 8.15 - the only other man to hit the automatic qualification distance.
Pinnock and fellow Jamaican Carey McLeod, the only athlete to have beaten Tentoglou this year, also went through.
The long jump is another event historically dominated by the United States, with 22 gold and 47 medals in all, but they have won only two of the last six golds and had a terrible day.
Jarrion Lawson had three no-jumps while Jeremiah Davis was 15th and Malcolm Clemons 21st, with 12 going through to Tuesday's final. It is the only second time, after 2008, that the U.S. have failed to get a man into the final. — Reuters
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