Greek long jump legend claims his first outdoor world crown with high-pressure final round jump of 8.52m in Budapest

Miltiadis Tentoglou has won virtually everything in the long jump but in the quest for an elusive world outdoor gold the Greek athlete had to pull out all the stops.

Despite jumping an excellent 8.50m (0.6) in the first round, he was matched by Wayne Pinnock, who jumped 8.50m (-0.1) in the second round but led the contest into the latter stages courtesy of a superior second mark of 8.40m (0.5) from round one.

In the sixth and final round, though, up stepped Tentoglou and he soared out to 8.52m to win by two centimetres.

“The only gold medal I missed is now mine,” said Tentoglou, who has won Olympic, European and world indoor titles in recent seasons. “I wanted to jump more than 8.50m and I managed to in the last round but I left my foot in the sand and lost an even bigger jump.”

He added: “It was a great competition, a great battle, better than last year. Now I'm going to defend all my titles. My athletics career is not about a collection of titles.”

Pinnock had jumped a world-leading 8.54m in the first round of qualifying. It was a PB by 17cm and put him in the frame for gold. But he wasn’t the only Jamaican with a chance.

Tajay Gayle, the former world champion, took bronze with 8.27m (-0.3) and Carey McLeod was fourth with the same distance of 8.27m (0.8), losing a medal on countback.

“When he (Tentoglou) pulled that off I couldn't believe it,” said Pinnock. “But then I could, of course, as I know what he's capable of.

“But, you know, this is still a silver medal. It's really a dream come true. Watching people like Tentoglou gave the me the motivation as a youngster to reach the top. And now I'm there… nearly there.”

Tentoglou looks like he’s in for a tough defence of his Olympic crown in Paris.

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