PHILADELPHIA - Manhattan College's Malin Olsson (Malmo, Sweden) won the bronze medal in the women's college long jump Championship of America at the 117th edition of the historic Penn Relays from Franklin Field on Thursday afternoon. Olsson moved from sixth place to third on her final attempt, a personal-best 6.12 meters (20 feet, one inch).
The event was divided into three sections (Championship, College and Eastern), and Olsson competed in the Championship section. She moved into the finals with a jump of 5.95 m (19'6¼) on her first attempt, but the start of the finals was delayed two and a half hours due to lightning. Sitting in sixth place after her first two attempts in the finals, Olsson uncorked her personal-best leap on her final jump. Her distance was the same as that of Chantel Malone of Texas, but Olsson was awarded the bronze because of a better second mark. TCU's Whitney Gipson set a new Penn Relays record of 6.69 m (21'11½) to win the competition by nearly two feet.
Olsson became just the second Manhattan woman ever to break the 20-foot barrier outdoors, joining school-record holder Malin Marmbrandt. At last year's Penn Relays, Marmbrandt finished fifth in the Eastern section of long jump (with a then-school record leap of 6.02 m) and won the Eastern triple jump.
On Friday, Roman Ewald (Olching, Germany) will compete in the both the Eastern section of the men's shot put and the men's college discus throw, and he'll be joined in the discus by teammate Colin Quirke (Los Gatos, Calif.). Ewald will also participate in the men's college hammer throw on Saturday. Andrew Trass (River Dell, N.J.) rounds out the Manhattan contingent at the Penn Relays. He'll compete in Saturday's men's college javelin throw.
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