'Pure magic or chance?': Record-setter Rojas nails third world indoor title

Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas sets triple jump world record in Belgrade.

Yulimar Rojas, of Venezuela, the Olympic champion soared out to 15.74 metres on her sixth and final effort in Belgrade.
AP

Yulimar Rojas, of Venezuela, the Olympic champion soared out to 15.74 metres on her sixth and final effort in Belgrade.

Yulimar Rojas didn't know whether it was "pure magic or chance", but was left living a dream as she soared to a new world outright triple jump record as she won indoor gold.

The Olympic champion soared out to 15.74 metres on her sixth and final effort in Belgrade, smashing the previous world indoor best of 15.43 she set in Madrid in February 2020.

Rojas also holds the outdoor world record, 15.67m, which she set when winning gold in Tokyo last summer.

The Venezuelan set the new mark to win an unprecedented third consecutive world title after previous successes in Birmingham in 2018 and Portland in 2016.

Worryingly for her rival triple jumpers, Rojas said her goal was now the 16-metre mark.

"It's been like living a dream for me today," she said of her performance in the Serbian capital.

Rojas said she wasn't sure whether her record-setting jump had been "pure magic or chance".

"It could have happened at any jump, but happened on the last one. It looks a bit like a jump for glory!

"Nothing is impossible, that's my motto," Rojas said when asked if the 16m mark could be under threat.

Second medal for Ukraine

A day after the onlooking Yaroslava Mahuchikh won an emotional gold for Ukraine in the women's high jump, her teammate Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk claimed silver.

The Ukrainian went out to 14.74m with her sixth and final effort, a full metre behind Rojas. Jamaican Kimberly Williams took bronze (14.59).

Mahuchikh might have hogged the limelight on Saturday, but the triple jump was only about one person - Rojas.

The 26-year-old had soared out to a safe looking 15.19m in the first round and fouled in the second. In the third she was beyond 15 metres again before fouling in the fourth and nailing what looked like the winning jump of 15.36m fifth time out.

Ukraine's silver medallist Bekh-Romanchuk was left revelling in her first international competition.

"I'm overemotional now," she said. "I devote this medal to all Ukrainian people, to the Ukrainian armed forces that defend our country.

"I could prove today that we are a really strong and unbeatable nation."

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