Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou wins world title with last jump

Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou celebrates his win in Budapest on Thursday. Pic/AFP

Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou clinched the men's long jump title with a tremendous last jump at the World Athletics Championships.

Heading into the sixth and last attempt on Thursday's final, Tentoglou and Jamaica's Pinnock had both jumped an impressive 8.50m. However, the Greek athlete's second-best result was just 1cm behind Pinnock's 8.40m, placing him in second position, Xinhua reports.

Tentoglou, coming in second in the previous year's World Championships, delivered his final jump with unwavering determination, achieving a season-best of 8.52m, out of Pinnock's reach.

"The only gold medal I missed is now mine," Tentoglou remarked. "It was a great competition, a great battle, better than last year. Now I'm going to defend all my titles."

Last year's defending champion, Wang Jianan, who narrowly defeated Tentoglou with his final jump, had an off day on Thursday. The 26-year-old Chinese athlete managed only a sixth-place finish with 8.05m. "I felt exhausted after yesterday's qualification," Wang revealed.

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