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Track and field athlete Malaika Mihambo in Eugene: World title in long jump defended
Photo: David J Phillip/AP
On the last day of the World Championships in Athletics in Eugene, long jumper Malaika Mihambo had the chance to successfully defend her title - and she took it.
With 7.12 meters she prevailed in front of Ese Brume from Nigeria (7.02).
Bronze went to the Brazilian Leticia Oro Melo (6.89).
Mihambo, unbeaten in major outdoor events since her 2018 European Championship triumph in Berlin, claimed the second medal for the German team in
Eugene
, the first in gold.
With her victory in Eugene, Mihambo is now the only German besides Heike Drechsler to have won long jump gold twice at a World Championships.
Last year, the 28-year-old also became an Olympic champion after winning European and World Championship titles.
Germany draws a sobering World Cup conclusion
Even before the last competitions on Sunday, head national coach Annett Stein said: "We are not satisfied with the outcome of the World Cup, we did not expect that." 40 to 45 percent of the athletes did not call up their performance.
It sounded similar to association president Jürgen Kessing: "You can't sugarcoat the situation.
Everything worked well in theory, but the human factor is difficult to grasp.
We don't have too many medal contenders.
A third to half of them were then lost before the World Cup.
Then it will be difficult.«
Before the last finals, the German team had only won a medal in the women's 4x100 m relay (bronze), and two more top 8 places came from Julian Weber (Speer/4.) and Claudine Vita (Discus/5 .).
Kessing had said before the final about a possible victory for Mihambo that “that would improve the balance sheet a bit, but would not solve the problem”.
aar/dpa/sid