Miltiadis Tentoglou and Mattia Furlani oppose the changes in the long jump

At the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow last year, two-time Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou shared his thoughts on the World Athletics’ proposal to introduce a new take-off format aimed at reducing fouls.

“I consider the long jump to be one of the most difficult events because of the board and the precision you need. The jump itself is easy. They want to remove the difficult part – the very thing that defines the long jump. If they do that, the long jump will become the easiest event”, commented Miltiadis Tentoglou. He also expressed disappointment at the lack of participation of athletes in these changes. “I am an Olympic and world champion and my opinion doesn’t even matter to them”, added he.

This weekend, World Athletics will test the new format at the tournament in Dusseldorf, increasing the take-off board from 20cm to 40cm.

Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Mattia Furlani also believes that the opinions of the athletes themselves should be respected.

“World athletics continues to push this idea insistently, when the athletes’ disapproval is very evident in interviews and comments from athletes and also from the actual public, as if we have no say in the matter, we just need to change the tablets with a different material”, said the Italian athlete.

World record holder in the long jump Carl Lewis has spoken out in support of two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou.

“Let’s do this and applaud the athletes who understand and respect the integrity of the discipline. Mark my word, this will not improve the results, as they think. Fouls are a much more complicated thing than anyone who makes these decisions understands. This will create new problems that will worsen the discipline. Mark my word”, wrote Carl Lewis on Instagram under a post with Miltiadis Tentoglou’s opinion.

Many other athletes from various disciplines also strongly oppose the introduction of these rules.