Mathilde Boateng breaks national triple jump record
Ghanaian triple jumper, Mathilde Boateng, has set a new national indoor record and an All-Time record for women after she jumped 13.30m at a Regional Meet in Lille, France last Saturday.
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Mathilde’s season’s best jump not only eclipses her current indoor national record (13.10m) set two weeks ago, but it also surpasses the current national outdoor triple jump mark of 13.13m set by Sheryl Anku in 2001.
It will be recalled that Boateng, 24, broke the 23 year -old national indoor record only last month after jumping 13.10m on January 18, 2014 to beat the previous mark of 12.94m set by Juliana Yendork on March 11, 1990.
Mathilde’s early season form is quite encouraging after her struggles with injury last year which limited her participation in international competitions.
“I don’t really know how I jumped that far and I think I should have done this for long time. But I’m glad I did it now. I’ve started from the bottom and now I’m back for real,” she told www.liquidsportsghana.com “It means that I can jump far and it’s just a beginning, but I pray I stay injury free this year. Everybody knows I was injured for a very long time but I am confident about sustaining the momentum this time around.
“When we were at the African Championship in Benin in 2012, I had a heel problem. I’m always injured around May and I got it three times in a row in three years.”
“It’s very frustrating but my coach and I know how to deal with it. I feel very good physically and in my mind to progress and I also want to have fun in the sport. I think it’s the most important thing to improve upon.”
She has, thus, qualified for the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the African Athletics Championships by meeting the respective GAA "A" qualification standards.
“It’s going to be the first time for me because I’m still new in the national team. My first competition for the Ghana national team was at the African Championships in 2012.”
