With jumps measured at 15.41 and 15.67, Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas broke Françoise Mbango’s Olympic record (15.39) in the triple jump and won the world record in the process.
After having been at the top of the hierarchy for 13 years, the Olympic triple jump record set by Cameroonian Françoise Mbango at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was beaten this Sunday, August 1 by Venezuelan athlete Yulimar Rojas. With jumps measured at 15.41M and 15.67M, Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas broke Françoise Mbango’s Olympic record (15.39) in the triple jump and, in the process, won the world record for the discipline.
Yulimar Rojas started the final of the triple jump with a superb jump at 15.41m, and then struggled to go further. The Venezuelan finally put everything in place on her sixth and last try to fall to 15.67m, erasing the former world record of the Ukrainian Inessa Kravets (15.50m) which dated August 10, 1995 (in the final of the Championships world in Gothenburg).
In the triple jump competition, behind the Venezuelan, the Portuguese Patricia Mamona takes the silver medal with 15.01m, a new national record, and the Spaniard Ana Peleteiro is adorned with bronze with 14.87m, also a national record.
Françoise Mbango, who held the Olympic record surpassed today by Yulimar Rojas, has been twice in a row Olympic gold medalist in the triple jump. A true living myth of Cameroonian sport, she is to date the only Cameroonian to have won an Olympic medal in athletics.