Tommi Evilä and Arto Bryggare were not happy about the springboard.
Tommi Evilä quickly noticed that all was not right in the plank of the long jump competition. Timo Korhonen/AOP
A special situation was seen in the women’s long jump on Friday in the Florence Diamond League.
The plank, from which the athletes push off, wobbled badly under the competitors’ feet during the push-off phase.
– The women’s long jump plank was life-threatening, Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare your line after the race.
C More expert Tommi Evilä noticed a wobbly plank especially on Germany’s Malaika Mihambo’s jump, which carried 641.
– Even the plank is not the best in the world. The ladies, the 50- and 60-kilogram ladies, rock it, Evilä stated on C More’s broadcast.
A moment later it was Tara Davis-Woodhall jumped 674. The plank wobbled badly again during the effort, which Evilä also grabbed.
– It’s sad to say, when Tara comes to the plank, it sinks about a centimeter compared to that running track. It absorbs energy badly, Evilä said and continued:
– It should be as sturdy as it can be. Now we should give a little note, I don’t know to the field staff or if there was just loose wood when the plank was built.
Evilä continued to fall even at the end of the long jump competition, when Larissa Iapichino jumped 646 with her last jump.
– That plank is so bad and even dangerous when it flexes so much. Nothing good will come of it.
Seven meters
Arto Bryggare called the plank life-threatening. Roni Lehti
Bryggare thinks the plank ruined Iapichino’s performance.
– It was loose when it had not been tightened and put on tight. It is tightened with a spanner. If the plank had been placed correctly, the Italian woman would have jumped 7 meters, comments Bryggare.
How is it possible for this to happen in the Diamond League?
– A mistake by the officials. Careless and foolish, Bryggare said.
Iapichino eventually won the long race. The Italian jumped with a result of 679 on his first jump, which was enough to win the competition.
Davis-Woodhall was second with a score of 674 and Ukraine’s Maryna Beh’-Romantchuk was third. His longest jump carried 659.