Teddy Tamgho: ‚I’m not favourite for European Athletics Championships‘ – European Athletics (EAA) – News

France's Teddy Tamgho, who was crowned as the world indoor champion in March when he set a world indoor record of 17.90m, transferred his spectacular form to the outdoors when he leapt out to 17.98 metres at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in New York on Saturday.

He became the third best performer ever, only behind Great Britain's Jonathan Edwards, who holds world record with 18.29m and who is now a European Athletics Council member, and the American jumper Kenny Harrison.

"This is good but it's just a shame that I was only two centimetres away from the (18 metres) barrier, that's a little hard to swallow. However, my pulse is now racing as I have still not really worked my speed racing.

"Kenta Bell (the American jumper who finished seventh) told me that I had to go faster if I wanted to go out beyond 17.80m. I listened and I made 17.84m with my fifth attempt and then I made 17.98m, but technically this jump was not my best jump of the competition, the best one was 17.84m," reflected Tamgho, who is still only 20.

Obviously there was plenty of talk in New York that Tamgho could be the man to break Edwards' world record which has stood since 1995 but he refused to speculate on such a possibility.

"At the moment, I don't know about the world record. I do not know, honestly. I hope to have the legs for it but 18.29m is another world compared to 18 metres.

"I have to find another 32 centimetres before I can call the world record mine and that's a lot. At this stage, any improvement becomes increasingly hard. However, I am pleased to be part of the club of the world's best jumpers but I'm still number three and I'm not in the first place, and there is still some way to go.

"I'm also not calling myself the favourite for the European Athletics Championships as it is still quite far away. We'll see. For this performance, I was alone without a coach at the meeting, in a foreign land, but I wanted to do something big.

In a competition which was billed as a head-to-head between Tamgho and the world champion Phillips Idowu, the young Frenchman proved to be a class apart as he produced four jumps of 17.60m or longer.

In almost perfect conditions with a helpful breeze on his back, he took the lead in the third round with 17.61m, jumped 17.60m in the fourth round before improving his own world-leading mark to 17.84m with his fifth attempt, his huge effort of 17.98m coming in the final round.

It was the longest jump that the world had seen since Edwards won at the 1998 European Athletics Championships, in the Hungarian capital Budapest, with 17.99m and the championship record is now an obvious target Tamgho.

Sweden's Christian Olsson, the 2004 Olympic Games champion, finished second in New York with a wind-assisted jump of 17.62m while Great Britain's 2009 World Championships gold medallist Phillips Idowu down in third on 17.31m.

It was Idowu's first outdoor meeting with Tamgho but the pair will tangle again this weekend at the SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen, Norway.
 

European Athletics (EAA) – News