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 LK Kurpfalz 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.
She now leads the world best list for the year, ahead of the American Tara Davis-Woodhall (7.18 metres). “It’s amazing,” she said afterwards on ZDF. “Goosebumps! That’s the second best 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. Third place went to the Portuguese Agate de Sousa (6.91 meters). The second German finalist, Mikaelle Assani, came fourth with 6.91 meters.
Led by the outstanding 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 was happy with second place. “Of course I would have liked to defend my title, but I’m super 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.
With a brilliant relay performance over 4×400 meters, the men’s quartet also surprisingly secured bronze. “Germany, who would have thought?” said Manuel Sanders. Together with Jean Paul Bredau, Marc Koch and hurdle specialist Emil Agyekum, he was only a hundredth of a second slower than Italy in 3:00.82 minutes. The victory went to the Belgians in 2:59.84 minutes.
