Greek long jumper has great record in European events and takes gold in Poland despite knee injury

Miltos Tentoglou successfully defend his long jump title but the Greek athlete defied a knee injury to jump a world lead of 8.35m.

The former parkour enthusiast leapt out to that mark in the first round. Thobias Montler got close with a Swedish record of 8.31m in the third round, whereas Kristian Pulli jumped a Finnish record of 8.24m in the sixth round. But Tentoglou, 22, held on to continue his phenomenal tally of European crowns that includes indoor and outdoor victories at junior, under-23 and senior level.

“After my 8.35 I wasn’t quite sure I would win, but I passed on my next attempts because of a knee injury,” the winner explained. “My patella is in bad shape right now, so the plan was to win this competition with just one jump in qualifying and one in the final. But if Tobias Montler had overtaken me, I might have found the strength to go again and move back into first place.

“I’m in great shape, and if it wasn’t for the injury, I could jump 8.50.”