Mihambo misses the triple - EM silver behind Vuleta

Created: 08/19/2022 11:26 am

By: Nico-Marius Schmitz

Malaika Mihambo won silver at the European Championships.

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

In the Munich rain, Malaika Mihambo is three centimeters behind European champion Ivana Vuleta from Serbia.

The winning streak of the Germans is broken.

Munich – The almost inhuman winning streak of Malaika Mihambo has broken.

And of all things at the home European Championships in Munich.

After Olympic gold in Tokyo and World Championship gold in Eugene, Mihambo missed the title triple within twelve months.

In the end, the new European champion Ivana Vuleta was three centimeters behind.

“I am happy with my performance.

It's not a win feeling, but it's great to celebrate second place with you guys," said Mihambo.

Still, the disappointment lingered on.

The triple mission had started with a lot of rain.

The spectators fled under the tent roof, the competitions were pushed back due to a storm warning.

When the organizers gave the go-ahead, everyone rushed back towards the ill-considered grandstands not far from the diving pit.

Everyone was happy to accept being soaked that evening in order to be able to see Mihambo jumping live.

Even while warming up, every step of the 27-year-old was frenetically cheered on.

A quick wave in the direction of the fans - and everyone freaked out.

Ivana Vuleta flew further than Malaika Mihambo.

© Sven Hoppe

As is well known, Mihambo did not travel to Munich in top form.

After her World Cup triumph from Eugene, the athlete became infected with the corona virus.

Couldn't train for ten days, felt tired and listless.

At the preparatory camp in Camp, she noticed that not much of her (world-class) skills had been lost.

Nevertheless, the start in Munich was one “out of cold pants”.

In the qualification there was the longest distance, 6.99 meters, easily into the final.

The run-up was fine, Mihambo put pressure on the track and was able to build up speed.

"It's not about jumping seven meters," said Germany's Sportswoman of the Year before the competition.

"I try to do my best, have fun and engage people."

But Ivana Vuleta provided the first exclamation mark in the final.

Vuleta flew to 7.06 meters - best performance of the season and the lead.

It seemed as if the rest of the field had started to ponder this attempt.

Mihambo started with 6.71 meters.

A good try to start with, but nothing more.

She looked dissatisfied.

Brief consultation with Ulli Knapp, her national coach, with whom she has developed such a good relationship.

And it got better straight away, as is so often the case with this successful team.

Skipped the magical 7 meters, 7.03 - only 3 centimeters to the leader - still second.

But then there was no further increase.

The next two attempts under seven meters, the last final.

The last conviction in the jumps was missing, the actually so perfectly rehearsed movements were lacking.

So it was down to the last try again.

Both at the World Championships in Eugene and at her Olympic triumph, Mihambo flew to victory with the sixth jump.

And of course everyone in the stadium rose again.

The rhythmic clapping, the bent legs before the run - it was all useless.

Ulli Knapp saw straight away that this attempt didn't cause problems for Vuleta either.

The 32-year-old Serbian celebrated.

Brit Jazmin Sawyers came in third.