Olympia 2021: German medal balance as weak as it has been in decades

Injury overnight: Stuttgart long jumper finishes last at Olympics

Vice-European champion Fabian Henley is disabled from a muscle injury in the Olympic long jump final in Tokyo and finished twelfth and last. The 27-year-old from Stuttgart did not progress beyond 7.62 meters on Monday and did not reach the final battle of the top eight. “I fought more against my body than against my opponents,” Henley said.

The Olympic gold was won by European champion Miltiadis Tentoglu of Greece, 8.41m ahead of Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba, who jumped 8.41m. The deciding factor for the victory was the second best distance, with Tentoglu leading. Cuba also took bronze: Maykel Masso took third place with 8.21m.

Swabian Henle, who flew closer to eight meters in qualification with a 7.96m in Tokyo, was completely disappointed. After waking up on Sunday morning, he felt that his joint muscle was “very poor” in rhythm. All the skills of the physiotherapist did not help in the end. In the first jump it was enough for just 5.18m, the second he landed at 7.57m and the third was not high enough to go ahead with 7.62m.

“On the warm-up area, I wondered if I wanted to compete at all,” Henley said. With “hoping for a good jump” he marched bravely into the Olympic Stadium, saying: “It was still good, even if it looked back.” At the Rio Games in 2016 and at the 2015 World Cup in Beijing, they had each end of the line in qualifying.