Teddy Tamgho (FRA) is at it again. Last year he set the World Indoor Record in the triple jump with a leap of 17.90m (58’ 8.75”). This weekend in Aubiere, France he went one centimeter better with a new record of 17.91m (58’ 9.25”) – increasing his previous world lead from 17.64m (57’ 10.5”).
Tamgho has been quite consistent so far this indoor season. His second best jump here was 17.58m (57’ 8.25). He won in Eaubonne with a leap of 17.59m (57’ 8.5”) and in Lievin with a jump of 17.46m (57’ 3.5”).
For comparison, during last year’s indoor season, Tamgho’s second best meet behind the WR was 17.25m (56’ 7.25”) – also in Aubiere. So it looks like the 21 year old is maturing into his role of making long triple leaps. If such is the case we could see an outdoor improvement over his 17.98m (59’ 0.25”) set last year in New York – and Tamgho could have the kind of break out season we saw from David Rudisha last year!
Two other athletes gave notice that this could be a stellar year for them as Mo Farah (GBR) and Galen Rupp (USA) set European and American Indoor Records in the 5000 at the Birmingham Indoor meet. Farah’s winning time of 13:10.60 made him the 10th best indoor performer all time over the distance, while Rupp’s 13:11.44 made him #13.
Farah is now only behind a set of nine Kenyan and Ethiopian distance runners all time, including the likes of Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie, and Daniel Komen among others – placing him in some very elite territory.
For Rupp it signals that he may finally be ready to actualize that potential we’ve known him to have for a few years, and that the work with coach Alberto Salazar is beginning to bear fruit. Over the past couple of seasons we have watched Matt Tegenkamp, Dathen Ritzenhein and Chris Solinsky blossom on the international stage and become competitive with the athletes from the African nations. If Rupp is able to continue his progress and back this race up with a few others, we could be looking at one of our strongest ever distance contingents come team selection for Daegu.
One other who also seems determined to do great things in ‘11 is high jumper Ivan Ukhov (RUS) who won without misses at 2.34m (7’ 8”) once again then took shots at 2.39m (7’ 10”). Ukhov already leads the world at 2.38m (7’ 9.75”) – a mark he’s cleared twice now. He’s had some close misses at the higher heights, and seems destined to go in the 2.40m (7’ 10.5”) range outdoors this year.
Look for more stellar marks coming out of the Stockholm indoor meet tomorrow and then some major collegiate conferences deciding championships this coming weekend.