A wonderfully dramatic fourth and final round saw the lead change twice, and brought victory to Cameroon’s Olympic champion Francoise Mbango, who with the very last attempt of the competition, produced the only 15m performance of the afternoon.
There could not have been a tighter competition in rounds two and three with Mbango and former Cuban Yamile Aldama, who now competes for Sudan, and who was fifth in Athens, producing identical jumps of 14.68 and 14.92, with the formers’ first round leap of 14.40 (Aldama had fouled) giving her the edge at the top of the competition’s ranking with one round to go.
At this point World Indoor champion and Olympic bronze medallist Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia was lying in third thanks to her opening 14.74 effort - with the one other mark to her name being her 14.64 in the third round.
The Russian who had already lost out to her compatriot Irina Simagina in yesterday’s Long Jump was obviously keen to come away a winner from the World Athletics Final. She won here in 2003 ahead of both Aldama and Mbango, in that order.
And today when she broke the sand at 14.96, four centimetres ahead of her both opponents' best it looked like she would get her wish especially when Aldama fouled her last effort.
But with the very last jump of the competition Mbango proved again that outdoors at least she has the mastery of the Russian, touching down at 15.01 for the win. Pure theatre, a classic last round which pushed Lebedeva down to second, and Aldama to third.
Further down the field, Olympic silver medallist Hrysopiyi Devetzi of Greece finished fourth (14.78).
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