Report13 Sep 2014


Report: men's long jump - IAAF Continental Cup, Marrakech 2014

FacebookTwitterEmail

Ignisioug Gaisah, long jump winner at the IAAF Continental Cup, Marrakech 2014 (© Getty Images)

Ignisious Gaisah may have been a late replacement for world leader Greg Rutherford, but who needs the Olympic and European champion when you have a flying Dutchman?

The 2013 world champion silver medallist made sure of maximum points for Team Europe by leaping close to his season’s best to beat USA’s London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist Will Claye, thus becoming the first non-American to win this event for 20 years, and only the second ever after Great Britain’s Fred Salle took first place in 1994.

Gaisah was the only man to go over eight metres, producing 8.11m in round two, just two centimetres short of his longest this year, and he finished his four attempts with 8.00m exactly.

Claye struggled to find his rhythm, fouling three times, but he reached 7.98m in round two, which was good enough to take second place for the Americas by two centimetres from South Africa’s African champion Zarck Visser.

In the absence of Rutherford, 2014 world indoor silver medallist Li Jinzhe had become a marginal favourite ahead of the competition, but the Chinese jumper was well short of the 8.47m personal best he leapt earlier this year, finishing fourth with 7.82m, matching his position from 2010.

Matthew Brown for the IAAF

Pages related to this article
AthletesDisciplinesCompetitions
Loading...