Greece’s Olympic gold medalist and long jump champion Miltiadis (Miltos) Tentoglou came in first place in a Diamond League competition and qualified for the final in Brussels.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist of Paris and Tokyo initially struggled due to wind currents which resulted in an invalid jump on his first attempt. However, he gradually found his footing and climbed to first place.
Following his first attempt, Tentoglou’s second jump was 7.61 meters. With his fifth jump of 7.97 meters, he climbed to third place and then placed first with his final jump of 8.06 meters.
First place ensured him not only victory in the competition but also the qualification to the series final in Brussels, which will take place on September 13th to 14th. The $10,000 prize for first place came as a natural reward for an outstanding performance.
Much is expected of Tentoglou, who was also the 2022 Diamond League long jump champion.
Jamaican Wayne Pinnock with 8.01 meters and Swiss Simon Ehammer with 7.99 meters followed Tentoglou in the standings but ultimately proved to not be a serious threat. With a 15-point advantage, the Greek athlete is at the top of the ranking and is ready to claim the title of champion in Brussels.
Greece’s Olympic gold medalist Tentoglou and his coach
With his personal record of 8.65 meters, Tentoglou stands as the third best European long jumper of all time. But what makes Greece’s Olympic champion stand out from other long jump athletes of his age?
Georgi Pomaski, the coach of the Greek gold medalist, has the answer: “He is an athlete completely focused on everything he does. He also has full control over his moves. Thus, when he aims at something, he achieves the maximum of his performance,” Pomaski said in a Kathimerini newspaper interview prior to the Paris Olympics.
Analyzing his athlete’s performance in Lausanne in the official webpage of the Hellenic Athletics Federation (SEGAS), the experienced coach said:
“It was the well-known Miltos! Whatever he needs to do, he will do. If you look at his match in Lausanne, he did what he had to do three times. On the third jump he did what he had to do to get into eighth place, on the fifth he did what he had to do to get into third and on the sixth jump he did what he had to do to get the win.”
On August 2, 2021, when Tentoglou won his first gold medal in the Tokyo Olympics, Pomaski was sitting in the coach’s bench, watching Miltos jump 8.45 meters. He is the man who stood next to the Greek champion in all his great achievements in long jump competitions.
The top Greek jumper remains undefeated in European competitions since 2018 and has entered the “golden” list of long jumpers who have won three golds. The Greek champion has remained unbeaten in 34 consecutive events, proving once again that he is the world’s leading long jumper at the moment.