Athletics-Venezuela’s Rojas sets triple jump world record
March 20, 2022
(Reuters) – Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas bettered her own women’s triple jump world record with a leap of 15.74 metres to win gold at the World Indoor Championships on Sunday.
The Olympic champion beat her previous outright best of 15.67 metres set at the Tokyo Games last year, as well as her indoor record of 15.43 metres, set in 2020.
Rojas jumped over 15 metres four times in the final in Belgrade, landing the record on her sixth and final attempt.
Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk of Ukraine won silver with 14.74 metres, a personal best. The bronze went to Jamaica’s Kimberly Williams with 14.62 metres.
Rojas, 26, has been a dominant force in the discipline since the 2016 Olympics, where she won silver, before winning the outdoor world title a year later and repeating the feat in Doha in 2019.
On Sunday, she won her third straight world indoor triple jump gold, adding to successes in Portland in 2016 and Birmingham in 2018.
Rojas said last year she had set her sights on going beyond 16 metres.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Bengaluru, editing by Ed Osmond)