A fantastic silver: Mattia Furlani he is the new European vice-champion of long jump. The blue on the raised platform of the Olympic stadium in Rome, took second place with 8.38 meters, measurement obtained on the first hop. For Furlani it is also a two centimeter improvement in his already Under 20 world record. Gold, the third in a row, for the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou who on the fifth and sixth jump landed at 8.65, a new record of the Championships. Bronze to the Swiss Simon Ehammer with 8.31.
The long jump final got underway right from the start with Tentoglou landing immediately at 8.42, the best world performance of the year, missing it by just a centimeter under the eyes of Ehammer. Furlani responds with an extraordinary 8.38 with half a meter of headwind, exceeding by two centimeters his record set on the platform of the ‘Fontanassa’ course in Savona. A jump with 9.2 centimeters given to the hitting axis.
Big crowds this evening at the Olimpico, in particular the Tevere grandstand. On the second jump the Italian and Greek score zeros. On the third jump, the Hellenic, European champion in the last two editions, lands at 8.49 meters while the nineteen-year-old long jumper originally from Marino, does not go beyond 8.00 with a stop 32.7 centimeters further back. In the fifth round, Furlani commits a null (23 centimeters) and Tentoglou sends everyone into ecstasy with an amazing 8.65, a personal best improved by five centimeters, fourteenth all-time world measurement and best in the world for almost five years. The sixth jump for the Italian from Fiamme Oro is again null while Tentoglou once again confirms the 8.65. The only one to win three European titles in a long time, but not consecutively, was the Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan between 1958 and 1969. Furlani’s is the fourth medal for Italy in the long jump at a European Championship. The first in 1938 in Paris, the silver of Arturo Maffei, the second in 1986 in Stuttgart, the bronze of John the Evangelistsand the third in 2006 in Goeteborg, the gold of Andrew Howe.
