Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango became the first athlete to triple jump over 18 metres indoors with a 18.07m effort in Aubiere, France.
The 27-year-old’s effort breaks the 17.92m indoor world record set by his French coach Teddy Tamgho in 2011.
Zango combines his sport with studying electrical engineering at university.
Nous savions déjà que le record devait tomber. Maintenant on repart au boulot car il ne faut pas s arrêter là. @HuguesZango_TS Burkina OYE #WorldRecord #afrique pic.twitter.com/vKrdOBY3YS
— Tamgho Teddy (Talla Kengne ) (@TeddyTamgho) January 16, 2021
He is based at a university in Bethune, close to Lille, in northern France.
Britain’s Jonathan Edwards holds the outdoor triple jump world record with a leap of 18.29m in Gothenburg in 1995.
Tamgho tweeted that “we knew the record must fall” after Zango’s jump, adding “now we go back to work because we must not stop there”.
Zango’s current outdoor best is 17.66m set in 2019. His coach Tamgho is one of only six men, including Edwards, Taylor and Claye, to jump over 18 metres outdoors.
“It means a lot for me because since last year I have been thinking about this record, because it was my coach’s record,” Zango told BBC Sport Africa’s Victoire Eyoum.
“For me the athlete has to beat the coach. We were teasing each other about the record.
“It gives me more confidence about my power and my abilities to do great things in the future. Yesterday the objective was to go to the Olympics and get a medal, but now the goal is to go to the Olympics and get the gold medal.”
