Venezuelan Olympic champion Julimar Rojas won her third consecutive triple jump world title by winning gold at the Eugene World Championships in the USA on Monday with the sixth best jump ever (15.47 meters).
26-year-old Rojas, world record holder, outstripped Jamaican Shanika Ricketts, silver winner of the 2019 World Cup in Doha (14.89 m) and American Tory Franklin (14.72 m).
Rojas started and carefully set her first of six, recording 14.60m before hitting with a force-per-second flying distance of 15.47m, the best this year. She then jumped to 15.24 meters and then made two errors before completing her attempt at 15.39 meters.
Once again, Rojas stood out from the rest by trying to break her own world record of 15.74m K, set in Belgrade on March 20, 2022.
The giant Rojas (1.92m), who dyed her short hair yellow, was crowned gold in London 2017 and Doha 2019, in addition to gold in the latest Tokyo Olympics and silver in Rio 2016.
After the coronation, she said: “The warm-up was broken, I wanted to go on, but I am happy to be back in this beautiful stadium. I hope to win trophies for my country.”
She continued, “I will remain focused on doing my best to compete in this format in (future) tournaments. I know that I still have a lot ahead of me and that great things await me.”
Rojas hails from the underprivileged area of Altavista in the popular Barrio Pozuelos area in the suburb of Port la Crosse.
She lives and trains in Spain with former Cuban long jumper Ivan Pedroso. She regretted not taking part in the long jump in Eugene, as her qualifying number was not validated last June due to her wearing non-standard shoes.
Source: El Iktisad