After four years of coming close it was finally gold for Michel Torneus of Sweden as the man from Hammarby also set a new Swedish record with his second round leap of 8.30m in Friday’s final.
That beat his old mark from the Gothenburg European Athletics Championships two years ago by one centimetre and was also a world lead for 2015. He won by the handsome margin of 20cm over his nearest rival, the host country’s Radek Juska, by any standards a comfortable victory.
So after four years of promising so much, Torneus finally fulfilled all the predictions. In 2012 at the Helsinki European Athletics Championships, he collected bronze. In the London Games he finished agonisingly out of the medals in fourth.
Then came silver on home soil in Gothenburg followed by bronze at the 2014 world indoors before finally in his 14th championships, Torneus has struck gold.
In truth the final did not start promisingly for the 28 year old after fouling on his first effort. He moved his marker back for his second effort and sailed out to his winning mark.
There was little reaction as he walked away from the sand and the distance came up on the screen but he was clearly keeping his emotions in check. “It did not seem that long,” was his assessment later.
He was praised for not getting carried away by none other than a former champion from Sweden’s golden years, triple jumper Christian Olsson, commentating for Sweden’s channel four who noted that he had done the right thing: “Best not to get too excited. It is the professional approach.”
Torneus was to take one more jump, an 8.03, and then he sat out the remaining rounds before draping his shoulders in the Swedish flag. It was then that the emotion came out: “At last! I have been chasing this gold medal for an incredibly long time in many championships and now I have got it.
“This shows that even an ordinary kid who lived on the eleventh floor of a block of flats with only one pair of training shoes can do it. You just need to believe and work hard for it,” he said.
Up in the stands looking on in Swedish colours was his girlfriend, Gabriella, and their nine month old daughter, Leah. “They’re the most important people in my life,” he added.
Torneus was not the only Swede on the podium in the Prague O2 Arena because sitting in bronze medal position was –rebro’s Andreas Otterling who smashed his personal best with 8.06 in the final round. That made history because this is first time that Sweden has taken two long jump medals in the same championship.
Otterling’s performance was if anything of greater merit since he had spent most of last year recovering from a hip operation. Mostly known as a triple jumper he has concentrated on the long jump since his operation.