On paper this would be a shoo-in for the three time defending champion/world record holder/world leader Yulimar Rojas. It didn't exactly work out that way.
Tori Franklin was unable to start the finals after qualifying the day before. In the first round, returning silver medalist Shanieka Ricketts got things started with a 14.84m. Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk then put up 15.00m almost answered immediately by Leyanis Pérez with a 14.96m. Six jumps into the competition, there was already what would prove to be medal winning jumps. Rojas later fouled. Rickets improved on her second attempt to 14.87m. Rojas' second attempt was only 14.33m, which put her in a tie with Keturah Orji for the seventh and thus last qualifying position. In the third round, Kimberly Williams jumped 14.38m to take the seventh spot. And Rojas was unable to improve on her third attempt, only making 14.26m. With only 8 getting their final 3 jumps, to break the tie, they look at the second best jump for each athlete. Rojas was fortunate that Orji had fouled her other two attempts. Rojas made the final eight by the skin of her teeth. She didn't make use of the first two extra jumps, though none of the other leaders improved either. In the unfamiliar position of starting the final round. Taking a safe mark, Rojas took off with her toes barely touching the leading edge of the board, giving up most of the 20cm width, but she clearly did not foul. She bounded out to 15.08 m (49 ft 5+1⁄2 in), in turn jumping from eighth to first. All the other competitors still had one more attempt to improve. Rickets used that opportunity to improve to 14.93m, but that wasn't enough to get her a medal. Rojas had to sweat it out as neither Pérez or Bekh-Romanchuk were able to improve and Rojas was able to squeak into a fourth consecutive World Championship.
Records
Before the competition records were as follows:[1]
.jpg)
