Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Hugues Fabrice Zango

Hugues Fabrice Zango
Zango in 2019
Personal information
NationalityBurkinabe
Born (1993-06-25) 25 June 1993 (age 31)
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
EducationArtois University (PhD)[1][2]
Height1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[3]
Weight78 kg (172 lb)[3]
Sport
CountryBurkina Faso
SportAthletics
Event(s)Triple jump
Long jump
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking1st (Triple jump, 2023)[4]
Personal best(s)Triple jump: 18.07 m
Long jump: 7.71 m

Hugues Fabrice Zango (born 25 June 1993) is a Burkinabé athlete who specialises in the triple jump and the long jump. He is the world indoor record holder in the triple jump with a jump of 18.07 m (59 ft 3+14 in) set in 2021 and the reigning world champion, winning the gold medal in the triple jump at the 2023 World Championships. Zango competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and won the bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in the triple jump event, the first ever Olympic medal for Burkina Faso. He has also competed in World Championships, two African athletics championships, a Jeux de la Francophonie, two Summer Universiades and two African Games. He became Burkina Faso's first-ever Olympic medalist, earning a bronze medal in Tokyo, and set the African triple jump record at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Competition

Zango's debut at an international athletics competition was at the 2013 Summer Universiade, where he competed in the triple jump.[5] In the qualification round his best jump was 15.74 metres, a distance that qualified him for the final.[5] Zango finished sixth with a jump of 15.96 metres in the final.[6] His jump was 1.05 metres smaller than the jump of gold medalist, Ukrainian Viktor Kuznyetsov, and 61 centimetres smaller than the bronze medalist, Kazakhstani Yevgeniy Ektov.[6]

Also in 2013 was the 2013 Jeux de la Francophonie.[7] At the 2013 Jeux de la Francophonie, Zango competed in the triple jump.[7] He jumped 15.97 metres to finish tenth in a twelve-athlete field.[7]

Zango's next major competition was the 2015 Summer Universiade, where he competed in both the long jump and the triple jump.[8][9] In the long jump, Zango's best jump was 6.73 metres, a distance that placed him 30th in qualification, out of 36 athletes.[8][a] He did not qualify for the final.[8] In the triple jump, Zango qualified for the final after jumping a distance of 16.59 metres in the qualification round.[9] In the final, Zango jumped 16.76 metres, a distance that won him the silver medal.[10] Zango's jump was 53 centimetres smaller than the gold-medalist's (Russian Dmitriy Sorokin's) jump of 17.29 metres.[10] Zango jumped the same distance as bronze medalist Xu Xiaolong (China) but, as Zango's second best jump was further than Xiaolong's, Zango won the silver medal on count back.[10] Zango was Burkina Faso's only medalist at the 2015 Summer Universiade.[11]

Zango competed at the 2015 World Championships in the triple jump.[12] In the competition, all three of his jumps were fouls and therefore he recorded no mark (NM).[12] Zango then competed in the 2015 African Games.[13] Zango finished fifth in the triple jump with a jump of 16.36 metres.[13] Zango was 19 centimetres behind the bronze medalist, Mamadou Chérif Dia of Mali.[13] At the 2016 African Athletics Championships, Zango won the silver medal in the triple jump.[14] He jumped 16.81 metres, which was 32 centimetres less than the distance jumped by the gold medalist, Nigerian Tosin Oke.[14] Zango jumped four centimetres further than the bronze medalist, Godfrey Khotso Mokoena of South Africa, and 20 centimetres further than the fourth-placed athlete, Mauritian Jonathan Drack.[14]

2016 Summer Olympics

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Zango competed in the triple jump.[3] Zango jumped 15.99 metres in the qualification round.[15] His jump was the 34th best out of 47 athletes.[15][b] Zango's jump was 62 centimetres less than the shortest jump by an athlete that qualified for the final, Cuban Lázaro Martínez. Therefore, Zango was eliminated from the competition.[15]

2019 World Championships

Before the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Burkina Faso's best Athletics World Championship result was 10th place for Franck Zio in the long jump at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. Qualifying for the final in Doha, Zango performed consistently well with 17.46 m in round 2 and 17.56 m in round 5, before setting a new African Record with a distance of 17.66 m in the sixth and final round.[16] With this record, Zango claimed the bronze medal - his (and Burkina Faso's) first at a major championship.

2020 Summer Olympics

In the 2020 Summer Olympics, held in 2021, Zango won the bronze medal (and so far the only one for his country in the Olympics) in the men's triple jump with a distance of 17.47 meters. He qualified for the final with a distance of 16.83 meters in the earlier heats. Going into the event, he was ranked fourth in the world and had a personal and season best of 18.07 meters.[17][18] This was Burkina Faso's first Olympic medal, and Zango earned it on 5 Aug, Burkina's Independence Day.[19]

Indoor world record

On 16 Jan 2021, in his final attempt jumping at a jumps-only indoor meet in Aubière, France, Zango jumped 18.07 m (59 ft 3+14 in) to improve his coach, Teddy Tamgho's Indoor World Record by 15 cm.[20] He became the first world record holder from Burkina Faso and the first African to hold a world record in a jumping event.[21] The jump ranks him the 6th performer in history, indoors or outdoors.

Personal bests

Event Best Venue Date Notes Citation
Triple jump 18.07 m (indoor)
17.82 m
Aubière, France
Székesfehérvár
16 January 2021
6 July 2021
WIR AR NR [22]
Long jump 7.71 m Pierre-Bénite, France 28 August 2020
100 metres 10.72 s Tergnier, France 25 May 2017
200 metres 23.08 s Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, France 1 May 2017
  • All information taken from IAAF profile.

Competition record

Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
Representing  Burkina Faso
2013 Universiade Kazan, Russia 6th Triple jump 15.96 m
Jeux de la Francophonie Nice, France 10th Triple jump 15.97 m
2015 Universiade Gwangju, South Korea 30th (q) Long jump 6.73 m
2nd Triple jump 16.76 m
World Championships Beijing, China Triple jump NM
African Games Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo 5th Triple jump 16.36 m
2016 African Championships Durban, South Africa 2nd Triple jump 16.81 m
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 34th (q) Triple jump 15.99 m
2017 Jeux de la Francophonie Abidjan, Ivory Coast 1st Triple jump 16.92 m (w)
Universiade Taipei, Taiwan 2nd Triple jump 16.97 m
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 6th Triple jump 17.11 m
African Championships Asaba, Nigeria 8th 4 × 100 m relay 40.96 s
1st Triple jump 17.11 m NR
2019 African Games Rabat, Morocco 1st Triple jump 16.88 m
World Championships Doha, Qatar 3rd Triple jump 17.66 m AR
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 3rd Triple jump 17.47 m
2022 African Championships Port Louis, Mauritius 1st Triple jump 17.34 m (w)
World Championships Eugene, United States 2nd Triple jump 17.55 m
2023 Jeux de la Francophonie Kinshasa, DR Congo 1st Triple jump 17.11 m
World Championships Budapest, Hungary 1st Triple jump 17.64 m
2024 World Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 1st Triple jump 17.53 m
African Games Accra, Ghana 1st Triple jump 16.97 m
African Championships Douala, Cameroon 1st Triple jump 17.18 m
Olympic Games Paris, France 5th Triple jump 17.50 m

Personal life

Zango graduated with a Master's degree in Electronics, Electrical energy, and Automation from the University of Artois (Hauts-de-France, France) in 2018. Subsequently, he began working on a PhD degree in electrical engineering at the same university.[23][24] He completed his degree on 22 December 2023.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ Two athletes; Mehakpreet Singh and Sylvester Nakeel; did not record a legal distance.[8]
  2. ^ Eight athletes; Latario Collie-Minns, Yordanys Durañona, Muhammad Halim, Ruslan Kurbanov, Marian Oprea, Şeref Osmanoğlu, Lasha Torgvaidze and Roman Valiyev; did not record a legal distance.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b Karoney, Celestine (29 December 2023). "Hugues Fabrice Zango wants to be 'a symbol of hope' for Burkina Faso". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  2. ^ "2017 Universiade bio". Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  3. ^ a b c "Hugues Fabrice Zango". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 26 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  4. ^ "World Rankings | Men's Triple Jump".
  5. ^ a b "Athletics: Men's Triple Jump Qualification Round Group A". Kazan 2013. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  6. ^ a b "Athletics: Men's Triple Jump Final". Kazan 2013. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  7. ^ a b c "Results" (PDF) (in French). Agence universitaire de la Francophonie. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d "Men's Long Jump – Qualification Group B" (PDF). Gwangju 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  9. ^ a b "Men's Triple Jump – Qualification Group A" (PDF). Gwangju 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  10. ^ a b c Wai, Tan Ming (9 July 2015). "Triple jumper Hakimi a fraction off in Universiade". The Star. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  11. ^ "Country Overview – Burkina Faso". Gwangju 2015. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Triple Jump Men – Qualification – Summary". IAAF. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  13. ^ a b c "Triple Jump – Men – Final" (PDF). Brazzaville 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  14. ^ a b c "Final Men Senior Triple Jump". Confederation of African Athletics. Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  15. ^ a b c d "Triple Jump Men – Qualification – Summary". IAAF. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  16. ^ Results. Triple Jump Men - Final iaaf.org
  17. ^ "Athletics - Final Results". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  18. ^ "Olympic Stadium-Triple Jump A - 3 Aug - 9:00 - Official". Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Archived from the original on 5 August 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  19. ^ Culpepper, Chuck (5 August 2021). "The thing about poignant triple-jump moments? They sneak up on you". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  20. ^ "Zango breaks world indoor triple jump record". ESPN.com. 16 January 2021. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  21. ^ "Burkina Faso's Hugues Fabrice Zango breaks indoor triple jump world record". Olympics.com. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  22. ^ "Zango leaps into record books with world indoor triple jump mark". aljazeera.com. Al Jazeera English. 16 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  23. ^ Revue de presse: Press review March 2018 - website of the Jeux de la Francophonie
  24. ^ Un nouvel exploit mondial pour Fabrice Zango, doctorant à la FSA ! - website of the University of Artois
Records
Preceded by Men's Triple jump African Record Holder
29 September 2019 – present
Incumbent
Preceded by Men's Triple Jump Indoor World Record Holder
16 January 2021 – present
Incumbent
Olympic Games
Preceded by Flagbearer for  Burkina Faso
Tokyo 2020
with
Angelika Ouedraogo
Paris 2024
with
Marthe Koala
Succeeded by
Incumbent