Last week the gold medalist in the long jump, Miltos Tentoglou, cleared 8.40m in a meeting in Toruń and climbed to No. 1 in the world for 2023.
In that meeting, in which no one checked his shoes before he started the match, he was wearing Adidas long shoes, the Black Panther version. A Limited Edition range of shoes. As it turned out later, however, these shoes are the Ambition 2 model which is prohibited from being used in distance races. The World Federation’s officials asked Tentoglou for photos of that shoe and a few days later cancelled his performance, which now does not appear in either the lists of the top performances of the year or Tentoglou’s performances this year.
He himself, after this move by World Athletics, made a post on Instagram and addressed the federation and protested against this unfair decision by comparing the two shoe lengths: the one (first photo) that he wore in the event but in the end was not allowed and the second (in the second photo) which is normally allowed. And as you can clearly see in the photos, they are the same shoes in different colours.
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“So World Athletics has people on its team who have no idea about shoes and sports. And they decide which spiked shoes are okay or not for athletes.
They think that the thickness of the back of the shoe is something that is good. In fact not only is it useless but it makes the spike heavy and difficult to run.
They cancel my 8.40 jump because I’m wearing the spike shoe in the 1st photo. While the other two spike shoes are fine for the long jump. By the way, the first 2 photos are the same model but different color.
Did you check the studs of the old discs? Did they have lasers on the board? I think you should have people on your team who have experience with the sport. I’m the one jumping. I want to wear whatever is comfortable and safe.
I don’t care about a jump at 8.40. I can do it whenever I want. It’s just unfair. I am disgusted. And the funny thing is that next week I will wear the same shoes but they are a different color so it is ‘approved’.”
