Two years ago, in Manchester, Francoise Mbango was within seconds of taking the Commonwealth gold medal but had it snatched away on the very last jump of the competition by Ashia Hansen, the Briton who fractured her patella at the European Cup at the end of June. It’s been the story of her career.
Mbango won a Commonwealth silver in 1998 too, and was second again at the 2001 and 2003 World Championships, both times losing to Tatyana Lebedeva. She was a silver medallist indoors as well, at the Worlds in Birmingham in 2003, when Hansen was her nemesis once more.
But tonight, on the biggest stage of all, the 28 year-old from Cameroon produced a series of jumps good enough to win any competition, including two of 15 metres 30 centimetres, an African record by two centimetres, eclipsing the mark set by Sudan’s Yamile Aldama earlier this year.
Mbango’s gold is the first athletics medal of any kind for Cameroon at an Olympic Games (the previous best performance was her own 10th place in this competition in Sydney), and it will surely rank alongside the country’s football gold from four years ago as one of the nation’s greatest sporting achievements.
Greece’s new record holder Hrysopiyi Devetzi took silver with 15.25, and Lebedeva, the World Indoor record holder and pre-Games favourite, won the bronze, with 15.14. Jamaica’s Trecia Smith leapt 15.02 but this was good enough only for fourth. How the event has increased in its eight year Olympic history.
Mbango started slowly, fouling her first attempt. But then so did seven of the 15 finallists in a distinctly uninspiring first round. The unexpected swirly breeze was clearly playing havoc with the athletes’ run-ups. Judging by the horizontal flags at the top of the stand, the wind should have been behind the jumpers, blowing them down the runway, which was situated beyond the back straight.
But at track level it was obviously more turbulent, as the gauge read positive then negative. Only the new Greek record holder, Hrysopiyi Devetzi, managed to hit the board perfectly, and she was rewarded with a jump of 14.96, and a first round lead. The Algerian Baya Rahouli was in second with 14.75.
Lebedeva managed a relatively ‘safe’ 14.84 in the second round, good enough for third, briefly. Her preferred tactics are to go out hard and scare the rest into submission early on, but this wasn’t going to be one of those days.
Smith got her run-up right too, and became the first 15m-plus jumper of the day. She moved into first with 15.02, while Magdelina Martinez of Italy moved one centimetre ahead of Lebedeva. Aldama, taking off a foot behind the board, still managed 14.90, pushing her into third.
The round ended with a bang, though as Cameroon’s Francoise Mbango pulled out her first 15.30, 25 centimetres longer than her previous best, and 45cm longer than she’s jumped this year. It proved to be a winning effort.
Lebedeva improved in the third round, to 14.95, but at the half way stage she was still out of the medals, a centimetre behind Devetzi. Mbango had another effort over 15, breaking the sand at 15.02, and with the next jump Devetzi had the Greek crowd in raptures. The chant of ‘Hellas, Hellas’ was being heard again as she moved to second, hitting 15.14. It was a safe jump – she was a good four centimetres behind the plasticine – but her first phase looked huge and she carried the momentum well into the leap.
All the main challengers were still there and, as predicted, it was already a high quality competition – Martinez’s 14.85 was good enough only for seventh.
In the fourth round Aldama improved three centimetres to 14.99, for bronze. Lebedeva fouled, Smith miss-timed her run-up and ran through, then Devetzi got the crowd on it’s feet again. She leapt 15.25, an improvement, but still only enough for the silver. Mbango’s excellent series continued as she leapt out to 15.17.
The fifth round started with a long foul from Pyatykh. It looked like another 15-plus effort. She clenched her fists in frustration. Aldama, desperately trying to get the crowd behind her, attacked hard but pulled out of the jump appearing to clutch her left hamstring. Lebedeva, having waited for the gun to fire for the start of the women’s 200m, produced 15.04. She was into the medals. Just.
Smith, whose bronze she’d just taken, tried to respond, but fouled – her fourth in five rounds. Devetzi had her first foul, then Mbanga produced yet another beyond 15. With such a series, surely she deserved to win.
As the last round progressed, Mbango paced nervously beside the runway while her rivals fell by the wayside one-by-one. Aldama’s Olympic dreams ended as she could ony hit 14.19. Lebedeva came up next. She improved, but only to 15.14, still only enough for bronze. Smith fell short, leaving only Devetzi.
But then the competition halted while the men’s 100m medal ceremony took place. How Mbango must have hated that. When it resumed the announcer focused the whole stadium’s attention on the Greek. But she couldn’t bring the hosts their second gold of the day, ending her series with 14.92.
To finish off, Mbango matched her winning effort, just for good measure. She had leapt one foul, then five beyond 15 metres. Not bad for someone who entered the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Dakar in 1998 as a 13.70m triple jumper. From such humble beginnings are Olympic champions made.
MB
