Greece’s top track & field athlete, long jumper Miltos Tentoglou, on Saturday successfully defended his world indoor title by edging Italy’s young Mattia Furlani in Glasgow – and just as importantly issued a direct warning to World Athletics not to change the rules of the sport.
The reigning 25-year-old Olympic, outdoor world and European champion sharply criticized a proposal to do away with the jump board, which would thereby eliminate foul attempts.
The amendment that World Athletics (formerly IAAF) proposes is to establish a take-off zone where jumps will be measured from an athlete’s take-off point to the landing position, eliminating foul jumps to make the event – or so athletics’ top officials claim – more appealing to fans.
“You need to run like a sprinter, to hit the board perfectly – this is the hard part of the long jump. The jump itself is easy. They want to remove the difficult part and what makes the long jump the long jump. So, if they want to remove this, the long jump would be the easiest event,” he said, adding:
“If that happens, I will stop doing long jump. I will be a triple jumper…It’s so bad, it’s funny. I think nobody likes it apart from maybe some of the guys who do a lot of fouls.”
