Lucky Ndudi still in contention to make World U20 long jump history for Ireland

Elizabeth Ndudi knows she is lucky to be in Wednesday’s final of the World Athletics U20 women’s long jump final after delivering a rather disappointing series of jumps in the qualifying round.

The reigning European U20 champion who has leapt over 6.00m 13 times this year, with 11 of them legal, found hitting the mark a hard nut to crack, including setting a 6.68 lifetime best and Irish record.

In Lima at the ongoing World U20 Championships, the 19-year-old who changed allegiance from France to Ireland in 2022 and was born by a Nigerian father and a Dutch Irish mother could not leap farther than 5.95m, way off the 6.40m qualification mark set by World Athletics.

None of the athletes could hit the mark but among those who came as pre-championships’ favourite, only Ndudi failed to hit the 6.00m mark.

The Irish national champion, indoors and out, has another opportunity to show she has the ability to either hit 6.68m again or farther, which should be enough to win the gold.

She has the chance to make history as the first Irish woman to win a World U20 champion and the first to be crowned champion, just like she did last year when became the first Irish athlete to win gold in a field event at the European U20 Championships.

Ndudi will be jumping first in the final and she could turn her below par performance in the qualifying round to a big advantage by setting the tone for the competition.

Her biggest obstacles are not just the duo of USA’s Sophia Beckon and Nigerian, Prestina Ochonogor but also Spain’s Laura Martinez who jumped farthest (6.37m) in qualifying for the final.

Martinez holds a 2-1 head-to-head record over Ndudi while the Irish has a 7-2 head-to-head record over Beckon.

Ndudi is however 1-0 down to Ochonogor in their head-to-head clashes.