Cuba's Juan Miguel Echevarria in action in the long jump (© Pavel Lebeda / organisers)
World indoor champion Juan Miguel Echevarria added two centimetres to his own world-leading mark to win the long jump at the jumps meeting in Bad Langensalza on Saturday (30).
The Cuban teenager was sitting in third place at the half-way point as his second-round leap of 8.20m was well short of the 8.40m jumped by South Africa’s Zarck Visser earlier that round. World champion Luvo Manyonga, meanwhile, sat in second place with a best of 8.23m.
The competition came alive in round four as Echevarria flew out to a lifetime best of 8.68m (1.7m/s), improving on his own world age-19 best and breaking the meeting record of 8.60m set 20 years ago by Jamaica’s James Beckford.
Manyonga responded with 8.42m (-1.2m/s) while Visser passed his fourth-round attempt. Another South African, world bronze medallist Ruswahl Samaai, improved to 8.27m in the penultimate round and Australia’s Henry Frayne jumped 8.22m.
Echevarria skipped the fifth round and fouled out in the sixth, but his victory was safe. Manyonga produced another 8.42m effort with his final jump, while Samaai sailed out to 8.40m to move ahead of Visser on countback.
Alexandra Wester won the women’s competition with 6.64m, just one centimetre ahead of Melanie Bauschke.
Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF
