Paris Olympics 2024: Greece's Miltiadis Tentoglou retains gold in men's long jump

Miltiadis Tentoglou becomes second athlete after Carl Lewis to win consecutive Olympic golds in the event.

Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece became the first man since four-time winner Carl Lewis in 1996 to retain the Olympic long jump title, leaping 8.48m to triumph at Paris Olympics 2024 on Tuesday. The 26-year-old now has a total of five global gold medals as he adds this latest victory to his Tokyo Olympic crown, two world indoor titles and one world outdoor win.  

After getting silver behind Miltiadis Tentoglou at the World Championships last year, Jamaica’s Wayne Pinnock added another medal of the same colour as he leapt 8.36m, just 2cm farther than Italy’s world U20 record-holder Mattia Furlani who got bronze.

With their performances in Paris, Miltiadis Tentoglou, Pinnock and Furlani each claimed a second Olympic medal for their respective nations in this event.

Miltiadis Tentoglou won a first Olympic men’s long jump medal for Greece in Tokyo and repeated the feat in Paris, while Pinnock followed in the footsteps of James Beckford, who secured silver for Jamaica in 1996 behind Lewis, and Furlani matched the medal claimed by Giovanni Evangelisti for Italy in 1984.

World indoor silver medallist Furlani had been the one to soar out to an early lead, jumping 8.34m – just 4cm off the world U20 record he set to win European silver behind Miltiadis Tentoglou in Rome – in the first round. Tentoglou responded with an opener of 8.27m as the only other athlete to surpass eight metres on the first attempt.

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The competition really came alive in round two. Furlani followed his strong opener with 8.25m but Miltiadis Tentoglou launched himself ahead with 8.48m – a mark he has only surpassed in one other competition this season, the European Championships which he won with 8.65m.

He didn’t look totally satisfied, scrunching up his nose as he waited for the distance to be confirmed, but it was enough to put him into the lead and, eventually, to secure the win.

It was also in the second round that Pinnock got his best mark of the night, as he launched himself 8.36m and into the silver medal spot. Those would prove to be the best marks of the contest, as Tentoglou followed up with 8.24m, 8.36m and 8.31m in another consistent series.

Pinnock also had three more jumps beyond eight metres, while Furlani had a couple of fouls but matched his bronze medal-winning mark in round five. He closed his campaign with a final leap of 8.27m.

That left the 19-year-old 14cm ahead of Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, who claimed world long jump bronze in 2022 and claimed the world indoor heptathlon title in March. Britain’s Jacob Fincham-Dukes was fifth with 8.14m, while Simon Batz and Zhang Mingkun both jumped a best of 8.07m, Batz securing sixth place thanks to his superior second best mark.

“It’s a great achievement,” said Miltiadis Tentoglou. “I am very happy, but very tired. My distance was not bad, not good.” Before the final he stated that 8.75m was his “dream distance”.

“I have a special personal reason that I wanted to jump 8.75m,” he added. “Today it was impossible to jump so far. It was not the best conditions; the wind was difficult at times. “I didn’t think my jump was going to be enough because the other guys are very talented and capable. I was pushing throughout to do more.”

The USA has dominated the men’s long jump at the Olympics but Paris was only the second Games in which no US men qualified for the final.

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