Mauro Vinicius Da Silva of Brazil competes in the Men's Long Jump qualification during day one - WIC Istanbul (© Getty Images)
Mauro da Silva of Brazil found an outright personal best on his last jump to lead the eight qualifiers into the final of the men’s Long Jump.
Already in the final, da Silva actually had no need to take his final attempt, but he was happy he did. His 8.28m added a centimetre to his outdoor personal best, set in Sao Paulo last year, and a massive 0.24 to his indoor best.
The 25-year-old da Silva is bereft of major honours, but that may change as soon as Saturday night’s final.
Da Silva was one of only four athletes to achieve the automatic qualifying distance of 8.00 metres. The two oldest competitors in the field, Spain’s 32-year-old Luis Meliz and Greece’s Louis Tsatoumas, achieved the feat with 8.10m and 8.00m, respectively, in the first round.
Australia’s Henry Frayne, who opted for the Long Jump ahead of the Triple Jump here, jumped 8.02m in the second round. He has a best of 8.27m this year, achieved outdoors in Sydney on 18 February.
Otherwise, the competition went to form, with Aleksandr Menkov (RUS), Senegal’s Ndiss Badji, Will Claye of the USA and Ignisious Giasah of Ghana joining the top four in the final.
There were some anxious moments along the way, however. Menkov’s first jump saw him take off 31cm short of the scratch line. He still went 7.80m, but had to wait until his second-round 7.98m to be relatively sure of a place in the final.
Claye, ninth in the Daegu World Championships final last year, ran through on his first attempt and could not do better than his second round 7.91m.
Still, qualifying is qualifying, trying to achieve the minimum required. The aim is to get to the final, which Claye achieved. The final is another competition, with no-one holding back.
Len Johnson for the IAAF
