Saladuha produces dominating performance to take gold

The 27-year-old Saladuha backed her winning leap with three other 14.60+ efforts which means any of them would have been good enough to get the gold. Simona La Mantia of Italy captured the silver with a jump of 14.56m, still a season’s best for the European under-23 champion.

Saladuha winning margin of 25 centimetres was the longest in the history of the championships.

La Mantia leaped into reckoning with her first jump itself clearing 14.56. While, the European leader Olha Saladuha of Ukraine opened with a foul while her theoretical stiffest opponent Russia’s Nadezha Alekhina, who led the qualification round with a 14.93m effort, leapt 14.10.

Saladuha moved to the front of the contest with a jump of 14.62 in round two, while Alekhina improved to the third place with 14.40m. The third attempt witnessed how Belgium’s Svetlana Bolshakova removed Alekhina from the bronze medal place after being measured at 14.55m in a perfect tailwind of 2.0mps to set a national record by two centimetres.

Bolshakova is a Russian-born athlete who received Belgium citizenship two years ago. Saladuha took firm control of the contest and she produced a 14.80m also in round three to strengthen her lead.

Alekhina’s answer to Bolshakova proved was simply not good enough as the Russian managed 14.45 to put some pressure on her former compatriot.

After a foul in round four Saladuha landed at a season’s best of 14.81m on her fifth try in what was the last remarkable effort of the main contenders as none of them managed to improve on their previous performances. Saladuha finished the contest in style with a last round leap of 14.71.

Source: european-athletics.org