Olympic bronze medallist Andy Diaz Hernandez leaped 17.71m, the furthest of anyone in the world this year, to take triple jump gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn on Saturday (8).
His fifth-round winning jump was also the fourth best ever seen in the history of the competition, and just four centimetres shy of his national record.
Germany's Max Hess, who won European gold outdoors in Amsterdam in 2016 along with four successive bronze medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships, had to settle for silver after leading for much of the competition following his opening effort of 17.43m.
Hess, 28, had shown perfect placement on the board and great rhythm through the three phases in order to improve on his own world lead by two centimetres.
Munich 2022 European outdoor silver medallist Andrea Dallavalle was the German’s closest challenger with 17.19m, but the leading pair would ultimately be pushed down the standings.
Diaz Hernandez looked fearless as he glided along the runway, made great use of his momentum initially, and then topped it all off with a fantastic jump.
In a result that appeared to delight women's triple jump champion Spain's Ana Peleteiro-Compaore, who was watching in the stands, Hess was unable to react and Diaz Hernandez took his first international title.
“Today I jumped only four centimetres less than my personal best, two centimetres off the Italian record and 20 centimetres off the world record. Clearly it will be the goal in my head when I will be preparing for the World Indoor Championships during the next two weeks,” he said.
Golden upgrade for Iapichino in the long jump
Italy's Larissa Iapichino claimed her first senior international title with a best of 6.94m in the long jump, denying Olympic and world champion Malaika Mihambo a third European gold medal.
Iapichino, 22, held her nerve in a brilliant competition as Switzerland's Annik Kälin - best known as a heptathlete - took silver with a national record mark of 6.90m.
That left Mihambo - who was unable to settle into her usual fine-tuned rhythm - to pick up the bronze. But the German had been fifth coming into the final round and so nearly snatched gold right at the end, summoning all of her strength and experience to leap out to 6.88m.
Kalin had initially powered her way to an explosive personal best by six centimetres in the first round to lead the competition. That meant she held the Swiss record outright, pulling clear of Irène Pusterla, who also jumped 6.84 but back in 2011.
She could only watch on anxiously as a determined-looking Iapichino went that small, but crucial fraction closer to the 7.00m mark.
Mihambo was eager to have the final say, but her landing was just a little too flat into the sandpit to match something like the 7.07 she jumped in Karlsruhe last month.
Claiming the scalp of such a decorated athlete as the German, feels like it could be a coming of age moment for Iapichino, who took European silver behind her in Rome last June. She also emulates her mother Fiona May who won the same title for Italy at the 1998 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Valencia.
“My mum won it with 6.91m, I won it with 6.94m so it’s a double win today,” joked Iapichino in her in-stadium interview in the Omnisport Arena.
Mihambo, to her credit, now has 10 senior international medals including six European ones, but her quest for a first indoor title continues.
Alex Seftel for European Athletics