Mbango retains olympic crown in Beijing

Cameroon's reigning Olympic Triple Jump champion Francoise Mbango Etone successfully defended her Olympic triple jump title with a new Games record leap at the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing today with a second round effort of 15.39 metres.

Russian Tatyana Lebedeva (15.32m) won silver, and Greece's Hrysopiyi Devetzi (15.23m), the 2004 Olympic silver medallist, took bronze.

Mbango Etone, 32, became Cameroon's first individual Olympic gold medallist when she won in Athens four years ago. This year she has won the African Championships and jumped a best of 14.95m.

She came back this season after spending most of 2006 and 2007 off the circuit for a combination of reasons, including injuries, studies and becoming a mother.

The 31-year-old also made a bit of history as the first track and field athlete to win Olympic gold medal while wearing a skirt with her two-piece scarlet garment.

She said: "The idea was mine. When I was pregnant I started to watch tennis. I got to like watching it a lot on the TV.

"So when I came back to triple jumping I thought ‘OK, I want to look special now. I am an athlete, and an Olympic champion. But I am also a woman athlete. I wanted to find something that would be more feminine and sexy but not too open."

"You have to respect yourself, but I wanted to look good. And I wanted to make something new, to bring a change to the sport," she added.