Burkina Faso’s Hugues Fabrice Zango made history on Saturday by setting a new indoor triple jump world record of 18.07m at a meeting in Aubiere, France.
The African record holder in both both indoors and outdoors events made the jump with his sixth and final effort.
The previous indoor world record of 17.92m had been set by Zango’s coach Teddy Tamgho of France in Paris in 2011.
As a result, the 27-year-old became the first triple jumper ever to break through the 18-meter barrier in an indoor event.
His record also saw him set a new personal best beating his previous mark of 17.77m, which was also achieved in an indoor competition last year.
Zango, who won bronze in the event at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, will be aiming to win his country’s first Olympic medal at the Games in Tokyo later this year.
The current men’s outdoor triple jump world record is 18.29m and was set by Britain’s Jonathan Edwards back in 1995 in Gothenburg.
Zango’s current personal best at an outdoor event is 17.66m which he set in Doha. Only six men, among them Edwards and Tamgho, have ever managed to jump more than 18m in an outdoor event.
