Long jump ace Malaika Mihambo’s focus is on two major events this year. Her current form already gives hope that she can achieve great things.
The long jump final of the Olympic Games on August 8th in Paris is still a few months away. But Malaika Mihambo’s focus is already on the major event in the summer and the European Athletics Championships shortly before in Rome in June. The long jump Olympic champion has already proven that her form is right at the German Indoor Championships – and again on Friday evening at the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin.
There the 30-year-old had an exciting competition with her competitors in front of 12,150 spectators. In the end she took victory with a distance of 6.95 meters in the last jump. She even broke her season’s best performance at the indoor DM of 6.93 meters. And achieved a new European annual record. Mihambo beamed with satisfaction and was visibly happy.
“I am very happy”
After the indoor event, she said in an interview with t-online: “I’m very happy. I showed a lot of good jumps today. I’m not at all sure whether that was ultimately the furthest, but that doesn’t matter. What’s important is for me to come back this indoor season.” Mihambo suffered a torn muscle fiber last year and therefore missed the World Championships in Budapest last August.
She appeared calm but focused throughout the entire competition on Friday evening. Mihambo kept trying to talk to her coach Ulli Knapp. After her jumps, she sometimes spoke to the long jump national coach for several minutes and got feedback. Almost six months before the Olympics, you can see how much Mihambo is working on herself to have a successful summer.
“Getting stability in the new approach pattern”
When she missed the fourth attempt on Friday evening after the third attempt, she was visibly annoyed. She shook her head briefly and ran to Knapp. The fifth attempt was also invalid. Mihambo let her head sink briefly, then she went back to analyzing why the attempt didn’t work. This was important to her in order to complete the round, she said and explained: “I keep going over to discuss small details.”
Mihambo also told t-online after the competition that it was important to her to “get stability in the new approach pattern”. “I felt very safe and very good today and everything fit except for a few centimeters, so everything was great,” said the successful long jumper.
Olympics? “I am confident”
The German long jump ace’s career has been plagued by teething problems so far. Before the European Championships in Rome and the Olympic Games, the two-time world champion wants to perfect her run-up and jump together with her coach.
“We want to continue working on speed towards the summer. That means you have to practice the run-up again at different speeds,” says Mihambo. She is already looking forward to the two major events: “I’m confident. Now it’s about working on the speed and I hope that it will really work in the summer.”