Pre-Games favourite Naide Gomes fails to qualify for the long jump final after struggling to hit the board (© Getty Images)
It was one of these mornings when you wish you hadn’t woken up yet and all that has happened is just a bad dream for European Indoor champion Naide Gomes. Unfortunately for the Portuguese record holder and world season leader it was all very true.
Up until today, the 28-year-old European champion had been experiencing the best season of her life starting with a national indoor record 7.00m in Valencia, a national outdoor record 7.04m in Stockholm and a further improvement to 7.14m in her last warm up meeting prior to Beijing in Monaco.
The fairy tale would not have a happy ending as Gomes could only manage a miserable 6.25m third and last round effort after two fouls. She hadn’t jumped so badly since 2000!
And to add to the disappointment, each of Gomes’ fouls was unmistakably over the 7 metre barrier.
Gomes was the unfortunate leader of a long list of notable non-qualifiers in a session exclusively reserved to the ladies (only the women’s javelin and women’s 200m first round were held this morning).
Defending Olympic silver medallist Tatyana Kotova did not make the cut as she only managed a second round 6.57m. She had a long foul at her last attempt which meant she would not compete in her third consecutive Olympic final.
After winning bronze in the Triple Jump Hrysopiyi Devetzi gave it a try in the Long Jump too but she too had to be content with 6.57m, a result which proved to be only 3 centimetres off the last qualification mark for the final.
Former World Junior champion Conception Montaner of Spain and Athens Olympics finalist Bronwyn Thompson were the next ones not to make it as both fouled their last attempt in a desperate effort to scrape into the final. In both cases it looked as though they could have made it through had the flag not been red.
World Triple Jump champion Yargelis Savigne, like Gomes, opened with two fouls. Her third was a mediocre 6.49m, well below the class the Cuban has been used to.
However, the demise of so many specialists should not take anything away from the twelve women who advanced to Friday’s final, three of which over the qualifying standard 6.75m. US champion Brittney Reese registered the best mark of the day with a second round 6.87m, just 6 centimetres off her personal best.
South American record holder Maurren Higa Maggi also went through the second time around with 6.79m with Heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska scoring a season’s best 6.76m to be the third automatic finalist at 6.76m.
Defending Olympic champion Tatyana Lebedeva, who was second in the women’s Triple Jump two days ago, is still in the run to become the first woman ever to win back to back Olympic titles in the Long Jump her second round 6.70m being the best of the non automatic qualifiers.
Only Heike Drechsler has ever won two Olympic gold medals in the event but that was 8 years apart.
Another reigning Olympic champion has made it to the final as Carolina Klüft, arguably the best all-round female athlete of the last decade matched Lebedeva’s 6.70m. After failing to advance to the Triple Jump final, Klüft seems capable of setting what could be a fantastic upset in the Long Jump final.
In contrast with the men’s event, all three representatives from the USA managed to finish among the top 12, Grace Upshaw sixth at 6.68m and Funmilayo Jimoh tenth at 6.61m alongside Reese. Third at the US Trials, 24-year-old Jimoh was one of no fewer than four athletes to advance with a third round attempt.
After her, Russia’s Oksana Udmurtova leapt to a desperate 6.63m, which would prove enough to make it through by just 3 centimetres. The same scenario unfolded in Group B when first Kelia Costa, the second Brazilian, regrouped to land at 6.62m and then Jade Johnson, who was seventh at the Athens Games, leapt to 6.61m with the second to last jump of the day.
It took the British champion a long time to recover from the scare of not making it after an expression of incredible relief appeared on her face.
Her effort meant that Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare would have to watch the final from the stands after the 19-year-old had herself managed to leap into the final qualifying position with her 6.59m last round attempt.
The remaining two qualifiers came from Group A. Canada’s Tabia Charles’ second round effort 6.61m and Jamaica’s Chelsea Hammond’s first round effort 6.60m surviving to the assaults coming from all angles.
As it is often the case every centimetre mattered.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
