By Amy Tennery
PARIS (Reuters) -Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou leapt 8.48 metres to become only the second man after Carl Lewis to successfully defend the men’s Olympic long jump title on Tuesday, delivering his country’s first gold of the Paris Games.
In a high-quality competition, Jamaican Wayne Pinnock took silver with 8.36 and Italy’s Mattia Furlani (8.34) claimed bronze.
Poker-faced world champion Tentoglou clinched the title with his second attempt, cracking a smile only once he was able to embrace his team in the stands before wrapping himself in the Greece flag.
Tentoglou joined long jump royalty as only American Lewis, who won the title four times from 1984-1996, had retained the title.
“This is for my country. Greece is the country that invented the Olympics, so I am happy to do it for them,” he told reporters.
The world champion arrived in Paris in extraordinary form, having won all but one of the 11 competitions he had contested this season, but was second in the standings behind Italy’s Furlani after a first attempt of 8.27.
Tentoglou stared solemnly down the runway before his winning leap, an effort that earned gasps from the crowd even as he barely registered a reaction.
He chased a bit of insurance but could only reach 8.24 on the third attempt and clapped his hands in frustration as he recorded 8.36 on the fourth.
It did not matter, however, as Furlani could not improve on his opening jump and Pinnock took silver with his second attempt after also finishing second at the World Championships in Budapest.
The Greek told reporters he had hoped to jump farther, calling it only a “decent” performance, even as his country’s leaders leapt to congratulate him on social media.
“Mythical Miltos Tentoglou at the top of the world for one more time,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote on the social media platform X.
President Katerina Sakellaropoulou added: “Tentoglou earned a well-deserved place in the pantheon of top long jump athletes.”
The 19-year-old Furlani, who is coached by his mother, described his third-place finish as a dream come true.
“It’s crazy because on the track, with my little work with my mother, I dreamed of this medal with her, and now I’ve done it. It’s crazy,” he said.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery, additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond and Ken Ferris)
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