Venezuelan Olympic champ Rojas sets new triple jump world record
Venezuela's Yulimar Rojas celebrates setting a new world record in the women's triple jump final at the World Indoor Championships, Belgrade, Serbia, March 20, 2022. (AFP Photo)


Venezuela's Olympic champion Yulimar Rojas set a new outright triple jump world record at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade Sunday.

The record-breaking jump also earned her an unprecedented third indoor title.

The Venezuelan, who previously won indoor golds in Birmingham in 2018 and Portand in 2016, smashed her own previous best of 15.43 meters when she soared out to 15.74 meters on her sixth and final attempt at the Stark Arena.

It capped yet another dominant display of triple jumping by the Venezuelan – not since the 2016 Rio Olympics has she been defeated at the global championships and on that occasion, she still secured silver.

The two-time world outdoor champion also holds the outdoor world record, 15.67 meters, which she set when winning gold in Tokyo last summer.

A day after the onlooking Yaroslava Mahuchikh won an emotional gold for the six-strong Ukraine team in the women's high jump, her teammate Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk claimed silver behind Rojas after going out to 14.74 meters with her final jump.

Jamaican Kimberly Williams took bronze (14.59 meters).

There was a mixed bag for two other Olympic champions, Gianmarco Tamberi and Selemon Barega, on show on the third and final morning session at the world indoors.

Tamberi, who shared Olympic gold with absent Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim in Tokyo, was seeking to clinch a second indoor title after previous success in 2016.

But unlike Rojas, the Italian did not have it all his own way, eventually taking away a joint bronze with New Zealand's Hamish Kerr as South Korea's Woo Sanghyeok bagged gold with 2.34 meters ahead of Swiss Loic Gasch (2.31 meters).

All eyes were on Tamberi the track showman, but the grinning 25-year-old Korean thrived in the attention of a raucous crowd treated on numerous occasions to a remix of PSY's "Gangnam Style" song pumped out on the tannoy.

Ethiopia's Barega, in the absence of teammate Berihu Aregawi who failed to qualify for the final, claimed an impressive victory in the 3000-meter, racing home in 7 minutes 41.38 seconds to add gold to his 2018 silver.

Teammate Lamecha Girma claimed silver, 0.25 seconds off Barega's pace, while Briton Marc Scott took bronze (+0.64).

The versatile Barega, Olympic 10,000 meters champion and a world outdoor silver medallist in 2019 over 5,000 meters, was happy to sit behind a clutch of leaders as Girma surged, splitting the field into a single file.

Girma, closely tracked by Kenya's Daniel Simiu Ebenyo, ceded the lead to Barega with three laps to go.

Barega slowed the pace and suddenly there were seven bunched at the bell, but the two Ethiopians then hit the after-burners to sprint clear, Scott outpacing Ebenyo for bronze.