Jacob Fincham-Dukes from Britain took 2nd with 8.06m, same as Thobias Montler from Sweden who came 3rd on countback.
The formidable child of Grevena, after the gold in Berlin in 2018, climbed to the highest step of the podium in Munich and became the first Greek long-distance athlete to win 2 consecutive gold medals in European open and second in Greek athletics, after only Katerina Stefanidis had so far won 2 consecutive gold medals at the European Open in 2016 and 2018. The "golden" Olympic medalist of Tokyo showed early today (16/8), in the long final, that he is in excellent condition to... fly at 8.52, on his 4th jump setting a competition record! The "flying" Tedoglou gave Greece its second gold medal at TentoglouEuropean Athletics Championships in Munich, after leading, at noon today (16/8), that of Antigoni Drisbiotis in the 35 km walk.
In detail, the 24-year-old "golden" Olympic champion of Tokyo, Miltos Tentoglou , said:
"It was a very good race for me. I did what I dreamed of, what I thought I could do. Big leap, it was what had to be done. Could the athlete whose record I broke be here, you say? It was incredible, there were so many people, there really isn't an empty seat.
The stand in the length was full of my family, my friends, from the national team, thank you very much, they made an awesome stand. I said before the race to the guys on the team that if I start with void, I will win. And this is no accident. You can set the void instead of pressing back. From there I did a safe jump, at 8:52 I had apnea and I say "here we are". I had to ensure it, you never know. It can be windy, it can be cold, I had to be safe.
Even if I lose a few races it doesn't matter because I'm consistently on the podium, even in the Diamond League we all lose. There is a lot of pressure, it is quite difficult but I fight it and in the medal matches I really enjoy it. Think my first jump in qualifying was a meter down. Now I was confident with my time, I have worked it so much in my head that nothing could go wrong. I was saying ok, if it has good conditions, I will be ok.
I'll keep doing what I'm doing, the best I can. Next year is the World Cup and I don't want to miss it. And it won't escape me. I'm very happy, gold medal, race record, great performance. This is what I look for in every event. I could also go to the World, but it's hard, okay. I was second, ok.
I believe that every long jumper should have nine meters in mind, of course I have it in mine too. Very difficult, I want half a meter more, I will always try to get closer."
