Miltiadis Tentoglou personifies what the skill sport is about – and what it shouldn’t be about, writes Pekka Holopainen.
Pekka Holopainen
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Of course, the international athletics federation World Athletics basically only wants the best for its sport, but in its frenzy of renewal, it sometimes goes from traditions, numbers and statistics to the bones and cores of the fans and athletes of the living sport.
The World Indoor Championships in Glasgow saw a wild long jump competition in the spring and winter, where Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou already won the gold medal for the second time with a tie for second place, with the second longest jump.
If the much-talked-about reform of the long jump and triple jump had been used, or a plan for such, i.e. an effort area instead of a plank, the winner would have been a young Italian Mattia Furlani.
Longer with laser
His best jump, laser-measured from the effort area, would have been longer than Tentoglou, who jumped his 9th gold medal in Scotland – and now in Rome filled the top ten by jumping 865 twice, one centimeter away from the Greek record.
The trivia question “which 10-time athletics title winner is not the record athlete of his country in that sport” is a noble series.
Only Carl Lewis and Robert Emma’s had previously managed to jump 865 or more twice in one competition. When, for example, an ME man is added to these Mike Powell and A memorable World Cup final in Tokyo 1991 and still one jump wonder Bob Beamonit can be stated that Tentoglou, who already jumped 819 at the age of 18, is also the least respected 10-time title race winner in the history of athletics.
After all, he is only in 13th place in the all-time world statistics, the entire top six having achieved their results between 1968 and 1994, in many ways a different era than Tentoglou.
The “world record” of the 2020s
His Rome-born record of 865 is a clear “world record” of the 2020s
Tentoglou’s winning results in ten gold-ranked competitions create an average of 841. That would put him in 62nd place in the all-time world statistics.
Let’s go back to the above-mentioned Glasgow World Cup arena, where Tentoglou was able to comment on World Athletics’ thoughts on replacing the plank in the effort area. The Greek announced that he would no longer long jump after that, because measuring from a random point of effort instead of the tip of the plank would take away from the sport its most essential element: the skill element.
To sell this to something like “faster management of the competition” is sacrilege for the superbly coached Tentoglou.
In his ten winning contests, he has received a total of only 16 rusks. The amount is scarce when you play with really small tolerances and only seek profit.
Standardized speed run
The competitive nerves and performance level of a top long jumper are almost the same as a perfectly standardized speed run.
After this, the jumper can freely use the features packed into his body. The drop in the center of gravity in the penultimate sprint step of Tentoglou and the force pushing forward are magical.
There is a logical explanation for Tentoglou’s thinking, which is especially based on his high level of skill. At the time, he was talked into trying the long jump as part of parkour, which requires an extreme level of physical skill. The biomechanical chain was right away, so to speak.
Lightweight, Bulgarian trainer Georgy Pomashkin An athlete who uses exercise power moderately with
He represents something similar to the skill side of his sport Armand Duplantis in the pole vault.
The latter is considered the world’s best all-around athlete for a reason. Followers of track and field sports who are at least more casual than the other have to meet at least.