Tara Davis-Woodhall added the world title to her Olympic gold as she bettered the field with her very first leap of the long jump competition at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on Sunday (14).

After winning gold in Paris, she had pledged to “change the sport of long jump and get eyes on long jump”.

She achieved the latter with her impressive performance and then an embrace in front of packed stands in the French capital with her husband Hunter Woodhall, a Paralympic champion, who told her: “Babe, you’re Olympic champion”. The pair promptly went viral.

Once again, he was in the stands at the Japan National Stadium to remind her of her latest world-topping feat if required.

Germany’s Malaika Mihambo briefly threatened to turn it into a classic duel but could not quite match her US rival.

With the longest jump of the field this year of 7.12m, Davis-Woodhall began the competition as the favourite for gold. And opening the competition, she laid down a marker of 7.08m.

She repeatedly roared with delight to her supporters in the stands, notably her husband and her coach, all acutely aware she may have landed gold with just one effort – giving her the one major title to have eluded her so far.

Her closest competitor was always anticipated to be Mihambo, herself a two-time world champion and with a best this year of 7.07m indoors and 7.01m outdoors.

While Davis-Woodhall was ecstatic with her opening effort, Mihambo could barely have been less unimpressed with her own, reaching too much in her stride and achieving a distance of 6.60m, shaking her head in response.

But with each of the next three rounds, her form improved: a notable step-up to 6.92m in round two and then three centimetres farther in the subsequent round before a best of 6.99m. She subsequently went past the seven-metre marker in the next two rounds, only for both to be red flagged.

After Mihambo’s fourth and farthest legal effort, Davis-Woodhall merely responded by extending her best jump to 7.13m, just two centimetres shy of her effort in winning Olympic gold in Paris. This time she raised her hands in celebration.

In so doing, it also extended her winning run past two years – the last time she tasted long jump defeat was to Ivana Spanovic at the last World Championships in Budapest back in 2023.

"It has been an amazing year," she said. "I have been dreaming of this moment. Instead of putting the pressure on myself and taking it as something overwhelming, I was just embracing it. That (change) was worth the gold medal tonight.

"Right now I want to hug everyone. It's awesome to have this medal around my neck."

As for Mihambo, it was still an impressive return to the scene of her own Olympic gold four years earlier. 

"It was the best competition of the season - that is all I can hope for," she said. "I had some weaknesses but tonight I got over them. I was very close to taking my third gold from a world championships because my last two attempts were my best but with small fouls."

There was one other athlete over seven metres this season in the field for the final – Hilary Kpatcha of France – but her best of 6.82m left her in fourth place and just outside the medals.

The bronze medal went to 2022 world U20 silver medallist Natalia Linares of Colombia, for her first senior medal at a major championships, after a fourth-round PB of 6.92m.

"I was very confident with all the hard work we have done leading up to this," she said. "Caterine Ibarguen (two-time world triple jump champion) opened the door for Colombian athletics. She is my idol. This is a different event (to her), but we started a new path of success. Colombia has a world medallist. We have cried and suffered thoughout the years, but we are celebrating today."

As for Davis-Woodhall, at 26 it cemented her position as the world's best long jumper in her ongoing bid to change the face of her sport.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics