After the silver at the indoor EC in Istanbul, Thobias Montler decided on a WC plan:
— Then we’re going to go for the gold.
He had the feeling after the championship in Turkey last spring ended with the prize cabinet becoming one more silver medal richer, the Swede’s fifth.
At the same time, he did not know what awaited.
Injury-filled season
The off-season would be marred by injuries.
Knee, hamstring and right before the WC in Budapest, he got a feeling in the back of his thigh.
The injury status was still under control, Montler said before and after the qualifier in Hungary.
In the final, where Montler finished sixth, the situation was different and he was close to ending the final already after the first jump.
— The back pages were a little too uncertain. We jogged it out and made the decision to take it one hop at a time. The fact that I progressed in eight meters was just luck, he says.
— I’m a little half-proud of myself for getting through this.
TT: How were you affected by the feelings?
— They usually say that in championships you are willing to bet everything, take an injury. But if there is an Olympics next year, then it is absolutely more important.
— Better take the hit this year and be fully ready for next year, be ready and competitive against the guys who win.
TT: How do you see the continuation of the season?
— Should I feel the slightest uncertainty, I will take measures, but for now it is planned for the Finnkampen and the Diamond League final. But we’ll see where it lands.
Tentoglou won
The distance final at the Nemzeti Atléticai Központ was exciting right to the end.
With his last jump, Greek star and world number one Miltiadis Tentoglou reached 8.52 meters and got past Jamaican Wayne Pinnock.
However, Pinnock had one hope left.
The audience in the arena only brought the 22-year-old to the plank and through the jump – but the jump was not enough to snuff out Tentoglou for the gold.
With the triumph in Budapest, Miltiadis Tentoglou has now won everything there is to win.
“He’s just absolutely incredible,” says Montler.
— If I myself don’t stand at the top, he is the one I treat myself to.
Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle was third after clearing 8.27 meters and had the next longest jump to compatriot Carey McLeod.