Olympics-Athletics-Germany's Mihambo faces challenge to keep long-jump gold

By Helen Reid

PARIS (Reuters) - United States long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall had a solid start to her campaign to unseat Germany's defending Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo at the Paris Games, winning qualifiers on Tuesday and setting up a fierce competition in the final.

Mihambo fouled on her first two tries but delivered a 6.86 on her last, putting her just behind Italy's Larissa Iapichino for third place. Mihambo has the world lead, sealing her comeback from last year's hamstring injury by jumping 7.22 metres in June.

Davis-Woodhall, whose best this year is 7.18, showed she would put up a fight.

After commanding the Stade de France crowd to clap and cheer, she delivered a 6.64-metre jump on her first try, which she improved to 6.90 on her second. The 25-year-old won silver at last year's world championships and is seeking gold in Paris, having finished sixth in Tokyo.

"I was having fun, I had to be in the moment for a second, qualify so that we can go have fun in the final," Davis-Woodhall said. "I'm just excited to be here."

Davis-Woodhall is carrying U.S. medal hopes in the long jump after Brittney Reese retired after winning silver in Tokyo. But Malaika has form in pulling a win out of the bag at the last second: she took gold in Tokyo with her final attempt.

Nigeria's Ese Brume, who won bronze in Tokyo, qualified with 6.76 and Jasmine Moore, who won bronze for the U.S. in the triple jump on Saturday, booked her place in the final with a 6.66 jump for sixth place.

Athletes had to jump at least 6.75, or be among the 12 best performers, to qualify for the final on Thursday at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT).

(Reporting by Helen Reid; editing by Clare Fallon)