Tentoglou retains indoor long jump title, Holloway cruises

GREECE'S Miltiadis Tentoglou retained his world indoor long jump title in Glasgow yesterday as american Grant Holloway moved smoothly into the semifinals of the 60m hurdles.

Tentoglou, the reigning Olympic, world and European champion, leaped a best of 8.22 metres on his first effort.

italy's Mattia Furlani, 19, claimed silver with the same mark, Jamaican Carey Mcleod taking bronze with 8.21m.

Tentoglou, however, was less than impressed by a final held in a morning session at the Emirates arena.

"This result does not mean anything to me. i did not like the competition today, it was really bad for me. i jumped terrible. The morning final was like a 'dog shit'," the Greek said.

"it was very close. i hope everyone had some fun today, at least it was exciting in the end."

Tentoglou also laid into proposals by World athletics to trial a "take-off zone" in the long jump in a bid to eliminate foul jumps.

Currently, long jumpers have to launch themselves into the pit from behind a set wooden board. One spike over such board results in a foul jump being called.

The new proposal would see all jumps counting, with the distance measured from the take-off point within the given zone and landing point.

"i consider long jump to be one of the hardest events because of the board and the accuracy you need," Tentoglou said.

"you need to run like a sprinter, to hit the board perfectly - this is the difficult part of the long jump. The jump itself is easy. The hard part is the run up.

"So if they want to remove this, the long jump would be the easiest event. if that happens, i will not do long jump anymore. i will be a triple jumper."

- SuperSport