The Spaniard’s winning distance on Tuesday was the third longest in triple jump history after Jonathan Edward’s 18.29m world record from 1995 and Christian Taylor’s 18.21 from 2015. It was also the Iberian country’s best ever and a phenomenal debut for the Cuban-born athlete in the European Championships.
On a night of quite the athletic feats in the famed Olympic stadium, the men’s triple jump competition featuring defending champion Pedro Pichardo and Jordan Alejandro Diaz was a real thriller, where the Spaniard stole the show.
Pichardo, the Olympic and 2022 world champion, also born in Cuba, jumped 18.04 metres to better Edwards’ previous championship best of 17.99, but Diaz fired back in his penultimate jump with a massive 18.18m.
“Seeing Pichardo jumping 18m was a motivation to jump even further because nobody came to these championships to finish second or third,” said Diaz.
Coming in second was current Portuguese national Pichardo, who also netted the Iberian country’s record (although he had jumped further in 2015, representing Cuba) while Frenchman Thomas Gogois registered the third best jump of the day at 17.38 m.
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“It was a dream competition. I am not fully conscious of what I have done. I haven’t seen it, but I know it has been something incredible,” Diaz said.
The 23-year-old doubled down on fellow Spaniard Ana Peleteiro’s gold on the women’s triple jump on Sunday. The Havana native bettered his own Spanish record twice and crushed Pichardo on his fifth try, much to the delight of the raucous crowd at the Rome stadium. Diaz now leads the season rankings and solidified his status as a medal favourite in the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Pichardo still had a chance to beat him with his sixth jump, but failed to do so, registering 17.92m, and Diaz declined the option to better his own mark.
As Peleteiro, Diaz trains in Barcelona with legendary coach Ivan Pedroso, also originally from Cuba. He had stated that he wanted to beat the 18-metre mark at the upcoming Olympics but, now that he has already done so, he could be eying a bigger prize: a world record.