After flirting with the mark several times during the competition, Yulimar Rojas managed to put everything together in the last round to smash her own triple jump world record with a leap of 15.74m at the World Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 on Sunday’s (20) last day.
Never a doubt for Rojas
The Venezuelan kept the cheering crowd on the edge for the entire competition after opening the event with a mark of 15.19m and before leaping 15.04m and 15.36m in the third and fifth rounds, respectively.
Rojas then stretched out to her new world indoor record mark in the sixth and final round to secure her third successive world indoor triple jump title and became the first woman to achieve that feat.
The 26-year-old was so confident that the record was broke, she began her celebrations in the sands, and even before the mark was measured. Read more: How to watch World Indoor Championships 2022 final day?
Her effort on Sunday saw her breaking the previous mark of 15.43m, which she set in Madrid on 21 Feb 2020. The winning measure is even further than her own 15.67m outdoor world record mark, which was set at the Olympics in Tokyo, last August.
Meanwhile, Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk collected a silver medal for Ukraine after the European champion jumped a big personal best of 14.74m in the last round to improve on her previous lifetime best of 14.34m.
Jamaica’s two-time Commonwealth Games champion Kimberly Williams finished with the bronze medal with a leap of 14.62m in round six. Williams was in second place for most of the competition until Bekh-Romanchuk frog leaped her in the final round.
Bekh-Romanchuk’s silver medal in the high jump on Sunday saw her adding to gold medal won by her Ukraine teammate Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s high jump on Saturday (19).
