Tsatoumas Awarded Silver in Long Jump at European Games

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Monday congratulated Louis Tsatoumas who was awarded a silver medal in the long jump at the European Championships which are being held in Zurich, Switzerland. The Greek champion reached 8.15m in his first attempt just behind British Greg Rutherford, who reached 8.29m.

He won his first major senior medal in 2007 at the European Indoor Athletics Championships, where he claimed the silver medal behind an Italian record-breaking Andrew Howe. On June 2nd, 2007 in Kalamata Tsatoumas jumped 8.66 metres, achieving a personal best and a Greek record for the event. The performance was the best in the world since Iván Pedroso leaped 8.70 m to win the gold medal at the 1995 World Championships. Tsatoumas ranks as the eighth best long jumper in history and holds the European record in the event at low altitude.

According to Wikipedia, at the 2008 Olympics he had the longest qualifying jump with 8.27m, but after three consecutive fouls in the final he finished in last place. He was the bronze medallist at both the 2009 Mediterranean Games and 2009 European Team Championships.

He represented Greece at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics, reaching the final round, but finished only eleventh overall. At the 2010 European Athletics Championships he was sixth.

Earlier in 2014 Tsatoumas set a Greek indoor record of 8.23m to win the national indoor title.