Tokyo (AFP)
The Portuguese Pedro Pichardo was crowned for the first time in his career Olympic triple jump champion, Thursday in Tokyo.
Pichardo was impressive with a jump to 17.98m on his third attempt, winning gold ahead of Chinese Zhu Yaming (17.57m) and Burkinabé Hugues-Fabrice Zango (17.47).
In the absence of the boss of the discipline, the two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion Christian Taylor, injured, Pichardo managed to win his first major title.
Born in Havana and naturalized Portuguese in 2017, Pichardo is the 4th best performer of all time (18.08m) and was a double silver medalist at the Worlds (2013, 2015).
Portugal's Pedro Pichardo, Olympic triple jump champion, August 5, 2021 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Jonathan NACKSTRAND AFP
Zango is trained by former French world champion Teddy Tamgho and lives in the north of France.
A student in electrical engineering, since January he has been the first man over 18 m indoors in the triple jump (18.07 m) and won the bronze medal at the Doha Worlds in 2019.
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