Larissa Iapichino in the long jump at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 (© Getty Images)
Italy’s Larissa Iapichino crowned a season defined by class and consistency with women’s long jump victory at World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on Friday night (11), her opening-round effort of 6.90m (0.6m/s) giving her the top prize of US$150,000.
In the absence of world champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, who had to withdraw following a recent car accident, Iapichino claimed the Ultimate trophy ahead of Britain’s Jazmin Sawyers (6.78m) and USA’s Alyssa Jones (6.77m).
The revised format for the Ultimate Championship was always going to create immense jeopardy and one of those who fell victim to it was USA’s Monae’ Nichols, the Diamond League champion, who opened with 6.39m followed by 6.33m.
That put her in seventh place, with only the top six athletes getting a third attempt and only the top four getting a fourth.
Iapichino had taken command of the competition with her opening jump and she followed that with 6.76m before fouling her final two attempts, while Sawyers jumped her best of 6.78m (0.9m/s) in the final round.
Jones jumped her best of 6.77m (0.1m/s) in the opening round and, curiously, that effort was intrinsically a longer jump from toe-to-landing than Iapichino’s best – the Italian leaving no distance on the board for her opener but Jones taking off 14.1cm behind it.
France’s Hilary Kpatcha took fourth with 6.73m while USA’s Claire Bryant was fifth with 6.52m.
“I am adding a new title to my family and I'm really happy to win from my first attempt,” said Iapichino, who also won the European title in Birmingham last month. “The whole competition was so cool – having the attention for us long jumpers is always important so the atmosphere was great and the crowd was amazing. I love the pink sand. Can we have it more often?”
Sawyers was equally impressed by the staging, if not overjoyed by her performance. “Once I made it into the event, I realised I actually really wanted to win it and so there is still some disappointment,” she said. “But when I zoom out and look at the season as a whole, that is a great result.”
Sawyers said the stadium looked “pretty impressive, so cool” and that it was a “wow moment” when she walked out. “I hope it comes across the same to everybody else because it was wonderful to be out there.”
Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics
