Greek long jumper has great record in European events and takes gold in Poland despite knee injury

Not only did Miltos Tentoglou successfully defend his long jump title but the Greek athlete defied a knee injury to jump a world lead of 8.35m.

The former parkour enthusiast leapt out to that mark in the first round. Thobias Montler got close with a Swedish record of 8.31m in the third round whereas Kristian Pulli jumped a Finnish record of 8.24m in the sixth round. But Tentoglou, 22, held on to continue his phenomenal tally of European crowns that includes indoor and outdoor victories at junior, under-23 and senior level.

“After my 8.35 I wasn’t quite sure I would win, but I passed on my next attempts because of a knee injury,” the winner explained. “My patella is in bad shape right now, so the plan was to win this competition with just one jump in qualifying and one in the final. But if Tobias Montler had overtaken me, I might have found the strength to go again and move back into first place.

“I’m in great shape and if it wasn’t for the injury, I could jump 8.50.”

Further back, British hope Jacob Fincham-Dukes struggled to replicate his 8.08m form from last month and was seventh with 7.79m.

One of the big host nation hopes, shot putter Michal Haratyk, was beaten to the gold by Tomas Stanek of the Czech Republic. After silver at these championships in 2017 and bronze in 2019, Stanek is something of a nearly man but he threw 21.62m to beat Haratyk’s 21.47m.

“I cannot believe I did 21.60 with the feeling I had,” said the winner (below). “After the qualification I was expecting Haratyk to come out with a big show. But I managed to stay focused and told myself to just remember what I should do.

“It took me a while, but I found my rhythm and wanted to surprise them all. This is a big reward for me after all injuries and problems. I am over the moon.”

In third, Filip Mihaljevic of Croatia threw 21.31m while Francisco Belo, the Italian who had topped the qualifying round, threw a national record of 21.28m in fourth.

Belo’s 21.28m took the lead in the second round but Haratyk overtook him in round three with 21.33m before improving to 21.47m in the fifth round. Stanek’s 21.62m winning throw also came in the fifth round, though.

“It wasn’t boring competition for viewers. There were a lot of plot twists,” said Haratyk.

Ariol Dongmo was cleared by World Athletics to switch from Cameroon to Portugal only seven months ago and the 30-year-old took shot put gold for her new country on Thursday night.

The two-time African champion and Rio Olympic finalist has been in great form this year – earning $20,000 for winning the World Indoor Tour in her event – and in Poland she threw 19.34m.

Close behind Fanny Roos threw a Swedish record of 19.29m for silver while Christina Schwanitz, the former world and European gold medallist from Germany, was third with 19.04m.

“The competition went very well,” said Dongmo. “I was just a bit stressed because it was my first European Championship. So to come home the first time with a gold is great.

“My main goal this season is to qualify for the Olympic Games and to perform well and to give my best.”

Eight women jumped 1.91m in the high jump qualifying and one of them was Emily Borthwick – the Briton improving her PB by 4cm in the process. The 23-year-old has clearly prospered under the coaching of Fuzz Caan at Loughborough lately but there was disappointment for GB team-mate Morgan Lake, who has been in 1.96m form this year but went out with a best of 1.87m.

“Jodie Williams is my roommate and her speech definitely resonated with me and today that has shown and I couldn’t be happier,” said Borthwick (below).

“I had two attempts at 1.91m and I thought ‘it’s now or never and if I jump this I’m in the final’. It’s a big PB and I was really enjoying myself.”