Ilona Masson confirms her level in Essen on the road to Birmingham
Just a few weeks after securing her European Championships qualifier in Lucca, Ilona
Masson was back in the pit, and she showed that her breakthrough was no one-off. At
the Tag der Überflieger in Essen, a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver meeting and
one of the stronger one-day competitions on the European calendar, she finished fourth
in the triple jump with 14.25m, just twelve centimetres off the podium.
The field was serious. Ilona finished behind Cuban Davisleydi Velazco, one of the
world's top-ranked jumpers this season (14.56m), Italy's Dariya Derkach (14.39m) and
Bulgaria's Gabriela Petrova (14.37m). Holding her own in that company, with a mark just
one centimetre below the 14.26m personal best that took her to Birmingham, says
everything about the level she has reached.
The setting helped: good weather and a great atmosphere in Essen made for an afternoon to savour. But the real story is consistency. Two competitions, two marks within a centimetre of each other, both around the European elite standard. Ilona is not merely qualified for the European Championships in Birmingham (10 to 16 August), she is arriving there in form.
For everyone at Beyond the Board, it is wonderful to see Ilona settle in at this level and keep building towards the summer. On to Birmingham.
Photos by @njp_motion
Read how she qualified in Lucca: https://beyondtheboard.be/ilona-masson-soars-to-14-26m-andlands-her-ticket-for-the-european-championships-in-birmingham/
