She has won everything there is to win in athletics, but this triumph on Wednesday evening in Rome is one of the most special of all for Malaika Mihambo because of the impressive performance with which she was crowned European long jump champion.
The 30-year-old from Heidelberg won the European Championship title with an outstanding 7.22 meters, just as she did in Berlin in 2018, giving the German athletics team its first gold on the last day of these championships. The Olympic champion and two-time world champion was only eight centimeters behind her best distance. She had only jumped further when she won the World Championship title five years ago in Doha.
Now Mihambo leads the world rankings for the year ahead of the American Tara Davis-Woodhall (7.18 meters). “It’s crazy,” she said afterwards on ZDF. “Goosebumps! That’s the second longest jump of my life.”
And there was even more potential. “Now,” added Mihambo, “I’m even more excited about Paris.” The Olympic Games begin there on July 26. Second behind Mihambo was the Italian Larissa Iapichino with 6.94 meters, ahead of the Portuguese Agate de Sousa (6.91 m). The second German finalist, Mikaelle Assani, came fourth (6.91 m).
Led by Mihambo, Germany’s athletes celebrated a happy ending in Rome’s Olympic Stadium on the last day of the European Championships. The 30-year-old was not the only German medal winner that evening: despite failing to defend his title, javelin thrower Julian Weber proudly flexed his muscles after 85.94 meters and celebrated second place. “Of course I would have liked to defend my title, but I’m extremely happy with silver,” said the 29-year-old. He was only beaten by the Czech Jakub Vadlejch, who overtook him with 88.65 meters in the last attempt.
19-year-old Max Dehning from Leverkusen, who amazed everyone this year with a 90-meter throw and exceeded 80 meters several times, finished twelfth with 76.16 meters.
And then the German men’s relay team shone. With a strong performance over 4×400 meters, the quartet of Manuel Sanders, Jean Paul Bredau, Marc Koch and hurdle specialist Emil Agyekum surprisingly secured bronze. “Germany, who would have thought?” said Sanders. In 3:00.82 minutes, they were only a hundredth of a second slower than Italy. The victory went to the Belgians.
While the women’s 4×100-meter relay team, which had sensationally celebrated gold at the European Championships two years ago, ended up fifth, the German men also celebrated in the sprint relay. Kevin Kranz, Owen Ansah, Deniz Almas and Lucas Ansah-Peprah crossed the finish line after 38.52 seconds and thus also took bronze. The hosts from Italy, including Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, secured gold in 37.82 seconds. The Dutch came second in 38.46 seconds.
At the very end of these championships, another German athlete made it onto the podium: pole vaulter Oleg Zernikel mastered 5.82 meters and shared third place with the Turk Ersu Sasma. World record holder Armand Duplantis from Sweden won at the end of the European Championships with 6.10 meters ahead of the Greek Emmanouil Karalis (5.87 m).
