Olympic, world and European long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou will star at the Seashore Group Doha Meeting for the first time when he competes at the Qatar Sports Club on Friday 10 May.
The 26-year-old Greek athlete - who retained his world indoor title with victory in Glasgow on 2 March - boasts a personal best of 8.60m from 2021 and is so far unbeaten this year.
‘Discovered’ by his first coach while practicing parkour as a hobby as a teenager, Tentoglou won his first global medal at the World Under-20 Championships in 2016.
In recent years he has gained a reputation for being an exceptional championship performer and in particular, for his final jump heroics. He first set hearts racing when he won Olympic gold on his last attempt at the Tokyo Games in 2021 (8.41m) and impressively repeated that feat at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest with a jump of 8.52m.
In the interim period, he was crowned 2022 world indoor champion in Belgrade and backed that up with a silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon later that summer. He has seven continental titles to his name dating back to 2017.
The 2022 Wanda Diamond League champion said: “I was in Doha for the World Championships in 2019, but I’ve never competed at the Diamond League meeting. The conditions in Doha are perfect and there is always a little wind, so I’m hoping to start strong in my 2024 outdoor season.
“The morning final in Glasgow (at the World Athletics Indoor Championships) was not who I am,” he continued, referring to his disappointment in his own performance; “but the competition is getting tough. I have won everything there is to win, but I really want to defend my Olympic title.”
The Seashore Group Doha Meeting is the third meeting of the 2024 Wanda Diamond League. The series comprises 15 meetings in total across four different continents, starting with Xiamen on 20 April and concluding with a single final across two days in Brussels (13-14 September). (doha.diamondleague.com)
