Reigning triple jump world champion Hugues Fabrice Zango says he will retire from sports after this year’s showpiece in Tokyo, Japan. The Burkina Faso athlete says he feels he has done enough, and will transit to a more supportive role.
Zango won his first-ever world title at the last World Championships in Budapest, having won bronze earlier on in Doha 2019. But, speaking to Telecomasia.net in Tokyo just after booking a ticket in this year’s final, Zango says this will be his last time out as an athlete.
I am getting older. I am 32 now and I want to transit and leave the stage for more African jumpers to come to the table. We have very good jumpers coming through. Even if I win gold this time, I will not change my mind. After this competition, I will retire. I will just move to help people who are coming through sports. I have a good relationship with the government and I will try to use this to help the younger people coming through in terms of support.
The Burkinabe booked a spot in Friday’s final in Tokyo with a best jump of 16.92, but says he targets a jump of more than 17m to defend his title. He has told Telecomasia.net that he feels a bit comfortable despite having a tough season due to injury.
I will just need to be able to take six jumps for the final. I will need to try and fix that with my coach and my medical team because after the third jump in the qualification round, I felt a bit tired but I will need to work on that. I think the gold medal will be won with around 17.70m and this is something that I have jumped like 10 times in my career. Maybe I will need to pull that to win a gold here. The triple jump season has not been very intense and I think this final will be very open.
The Burkinabe will be one of only two Africans in the final, including Algeria’s Yasser Mohamed Triki, who registered the longest jump in the qualifying rounds.
