LaFond sails to world-leading 15.25m in Zagreb

Thea LaFond produced the best women’s triple jump performance in the world for almost four years, leaping a world-leading 15.25m (1.8m/s) at the Boris Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb on Friday (26).

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The Olympic champion’s performance was one of six meeting records set at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, and it came in a high-quality contest against world champion Leyanis Perez Hernandez of Cuba.

Perez Hernandez had led with 14.74m before LaFond launched herself out to 15.25m in the fifth round. The mark smashed the meeting record of 14.77m, added 23 centimetres to the PB LaFond set when winning Olympic gold in 2024, and moved her to equal ninth on the world all-time list. It also lifted her to third on the North American all-time list.

Perez Hernandez responded with 14.76m in the sixth round but couldn’t get close to LaFond’s winning mark.

“I was really trying to project off the board and get a good hop, which I had been missing for most of the season,” said LaFond. “I’m not at the weight I’m normally at and I’m not running as fast as I normally do, but I feel so powerful. My coach and husband told me to focus on the take-off and be patient on the hop. On that last jump, I just told myself to forget everything else and launch off the board. It was probably one of the easiest jumps of my life. 15.25m — just saying it sounds insane.”