Reigning long jump champion Miltos Tentoglou cruised into the 2025 World Athletics Championship final in Tokyo, Japan, after jumping 8.17 meters in his first attempt, 2 centimeters over the required 8.15 to qualify.

The Greek jumper spoke to public broadcaster ERT, saying he wanted to finish the job as soon as possible to avoid straining his leg with additional attempts. He added that the Tokyo stadium was his favorite venue due to his 2021 Olympic gold medal success.

“It was very important for me that I did what I wanted—to make a jump. My leg isn’t completely fine, and I didn’t want to push it too much. It’s much better now, and if I move correctly, it doesn’t hurt as much. If I had done three jumps here, things would have been different in the final.

Now it feels really good, I feel good. That jump was nothing for me—I stopped just to jump. The others still haven’t crossed the limit. This is my stadium.

The heat is good for performance. You don’t need so much warm-up. There’s a small issue here with the stadium, though: the warm-up takes place in a field twenty minutes away from here. We come by bus after warming up. The heat helps so you don’t cool down and don’t have problems.”

The long jump final is scheduled for Wednesday (September 17) at 14:49 and will be broadcast on ERT2.

The 27-year-old Miltos Tentoglou is the most successful athlete in Greece, with his impressive list of medals including two Olympic gold medals (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), a silver medal at the outdoor World Championships, a gold medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships, and six European Championship titles (three outdoor and three indoor).

Meanwhile, Emmanouil Karalis managed to jump over 6 meters in the pole vault event, making him one of the favorites to win a medal.