A torn muscle fiber forces long jump Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo to forego the World Championships. The exceptional athlete ends her season prematurely. She’s already looking forward to next year.
Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo has to cancel the World Championships
The German athletics team has to do without Malaika Mihambo at the World Championships in Budapest. Due to the injury she suffered at the German Championships in Kassel, the long jump Olympic champion canceled her start at the title fights in Hungary on Tuesday.
“I’m very sad that the season isn’t going as planned and I can’t start at the World Championships in Budapest,” said the 29-year-old from LG Kurpfalz. “As you saw at the German championships, I was in top form going into the World Cup. I would have liked to have shown that in Budapest.” Now she has to be patient, “so that she can give her all again next year at the European Championships in Rome and the Olympic Games in Paris. That is my focus.”
Mihambo injured himself in a competition in Kassel
At the World Championships from August 19th to 27th in the Hungarian capital, Mihambo wanted to successfully defend her title and become world champion for the third time. At the national title fights a week and a half ago in Kassel, she had won the German championship title for the sixth time in a row with 6.93 meters. But she had to stop the competition. It later turned out that she had torn a muscle fiber in her left thigh.
“An athlete like Malaika’s experience definitely helps when she misses training, but in the end her form is what counts,” coach Ulli Knapp said just a few days ago. Everything is being tried to at least shorten the forced break a little.
Health had already affected Mihambo’s title fight plans last year. After the World Cup in the USA and before the European Championships in Munich, a corona infection stopped her. Nevertheless, she competed in Munich and won silver. “It was a miracle for me how Malaika did it,” said her trainer Knapp about the appearance at the European Championships. He is not the only one who has to do without this miracle this year.
