Cuban-born Spanish triple jumper Jordan Diaz Fortun produced a spectacular performance to win triple jump gold on day five at the European Championships in Rome on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old, who switched allegiance from Cuba to Spain in November 2022, produced a championship record and world-leading 18.18m to take gold ahead of Portugal’s Pedro Pablo Pichardo and France’s Thomas Gogois.

Diaz Fortun led the competition after the first round with a 17.56m jump before Pichardo, who also switched allegiance from Cuba in 2017, produced the world’s first 18m jump since 2021 with 18.04m to take the lead in the second round.

The Spaniard’s next two efforts were 17.82m in the second round and 17.96m in the fourth round after a third-round foul, finding himself just short of Pichardo’s mark heading into round five.

In that fifth round, he produced what is now the third-longest triple jump of all time with a breathtaking 18.18m, only trailing Christian Taylor’s 18.21m and Jonathan Edwards’s world record 18.29m.

Diaz Fortun’s jump also established a new European Championship record, eclipsing Edwards’s 17.99m set back in 1998.

Pichardo’s next three best jumps after his monstrous 18.04m in round two were 17.55m in round three, 17.47m in round five and 17.92m in round six.

Gogois produced a personal best 17.38m in the sixth round to secure the bronze medal.

Defending 100m World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce continued her spectacular start to the 2022 season with a dominant win at Saturday’s Paris Diamond League.

Fraser-Pryce ran her second sub 10.7 clocking this season, equalling her own world-leading 10.67 for victory ahead of Great Britain’s Daryll Neita (10.99) and Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou (11.01).

The eight-time Olympic and nine-time World Championship medallist previously ran 10.67 at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya on May 7.

Bahamian Olympic 400m Champions Steven Gardiner and Shaunae Miller-Uibo both also showed good form to secure 400m victories.

Gardiner, who is also the defending World Champion, produced a typically easy display of running to win in a season’s best 44.21, ahead of the Dominican Republic’s Lidio Andres Feliz (44.92) and South Africa’s Zakhiti Nene (44.99).

Miller-Uibo, on the other hand, went out extremely hard in the first three quarters of her race before shutting down with about 50 metres to go, to win in 50.10 ahead of Poland’s Natalia Kaczmarek (50.24) and Anna Kielbasinska (50.28).

Bahamian Devynne Charlton ran a season’s best 12.63 to finish second in the 100m hurdles behind Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan who did a personal best and African record 12.41 for victory. Great Britain’s Cindy Sember ran 12.73 for third.

Cuba’s Jordan Diaz Fortun (17.66m) and Andy Diaz (17.65) were the top two finishers in the triple jump ahead of Olympic Champion Pedro Pichardo of Portugal (17.49m).