The women’s long jump final did not live up to the excitement of the men’s version here in Grosseto with the Czech athlete Denisa Scerbova effectively winning the gold with her first jump of 6.61 (wind -0.3 m/s).
Scerbova was unable to improve on this mark, fouling three times and clearing 6.21 and 6.34.
The drama came in the fight for bronze and from the efforts of Sophie Krauel to snatch the gold.
After achieving 6.47 in the second round, the German proved remarkably consistent with successive efforts of 6.44, 6.45 before fouling with her last two jumps.
After the first round, two athletes were in the bronze medal position, Veronika Shutkova (BLR) and Amy Menlove (USA) with 6.08.
Then, in the third round, the Cuban Yudelkis Fernandez moved up into third place with 6.16, but in the fifth round, that mark was surpassed by Australia’s Jacinta Boyd who improved her best to 6.20.
But that was not the end of the story with Veronika Shutkova then pulling out her best jump in the last round, 6.22, to move back into third and claim the bronze.
