Mujinga Kambundji

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Mujinga Kambundji
Mujinga Kambundji Oregon 2022.jpg
Kambundji at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene
Personal information
Born (1992-06-17) 17 June 1992 (age 32)
Bern, Switzerland[1]
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight65 kg (143 lb)[2]
Sport
CountrySwitzerland
SportAthletics
Event(s)60-, 100-, 200 metres
ClubST Bern
Coached byValerij Bauer (2013–2017)
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)

Mujinga Kambundji (born 17 June 1992) is a Swiss sprinter. She won the bronze medal at the 2019 World Championships in the 200 metres event. Kambundji is the 60 metres 2022 World indoor champion, becoming the joint fourth-fastest woman of all time in the event, after earning a bronze in 2018. She is a three-time European Championships medallist, including gold for the 200m in 2022, and also won one medal at the European Indoor Championships.

Early life and family

Born in Bern[1] to a Congolese father, Safuka, and a Bernese mother, Ruth, Kambundji is the second of four children; Ditaji Kambundji is her younger sister.[3]

Career

In 2009, Kambundji won the silver medal in the 100 metres and the gold medal in the 4×100 metres relay at the European Youth Olympic Festival, and gold medals in the 100 and 200 metres at the Swiss championships. For this, she was elected Swiss Athlete of the Year by the Swiss Athletics Association. In 2010, she won the 200 metres in the Second League of the European Team Championships, and broke the Swiss U20 record in 200 m in the U20 World Championships.[4]

Mujinga Kambundji trained with the ST Bern athletics club and was trained by Jacques Cordey. In the autumn of 2013 she moved to Mannheim to train under coach Valerij Bauer alongside former European champion Verena Sailer.[5][6]

At the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zürich, Kambundji broke her own national record in the heats and semi-finals of the 100 metres competition before finishing fourth in the final.[5] She subsequently finished fifth and broke Regula Aebi's 26-year-old national record in the 200 metres final.[7]

Kambundji qualified for the Swiss team at the 2016 Summer Olympics, reaching the semi-finals of both the 100 m and the 200 m.[8] Earlier in the same year, she had won bronze in the 100 m competition at the European Championships in Amsterdam.[9]

At the 2017 World Championships in London, Kambundji finished 10th in the 100 m competition.[10] In the 4 × 100 m relay competition, she and her teammates Ajla Del Ponte, Sarah Atcho and Salomé Kora improved the national record in the semi-finals[11] and finished fifth in the final.[12] At the end of the year, Kambundji announced that she will work with Dutch coach Henk Kraaijenhof in the future.[13] Their working relationship was terminated after only two months, however.[14]

At the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Kambundji finished 3rd in the 60 m final to win bronze. At the European Championships in Berlin, she finished fourth in the 100 m as well as in the 200 m and in the 4 × 100 m relay (with Ajla Del Ponte, Sarah Atcho and Salomé Kora).

At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Kambundji finished third in the 200 m competition. [15]

At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics Kambundji qualified for the finals in both 100 m and 200 m sprints, finishing sixth in the former and seventh in the latter event. She was also a part of the Swiss 4 x 100 m relay team that finished fourth in the final.

She won the gold medal in the 60 m at the 2022 World Indoor Championships held in Belgrade in a time of 6.96 seconds, putting her joint-fourth on the world all-time list; a rare feat racing from lane eight. No woman had run faster over the distance since 1999.[16]

On 19 August 2022, Kambundji won the gold medal in the 200 m at the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich, after winning silver in the 100 m with a time of 10.99 s behind the Germany's Gina Lückenkemper three days earlier.[17][18]

Competition record

Representing  Switzerland
Year Competition Venue Position Event Notes
2009 World Youth Championships Brixen, Italy 6th 200 m 23.92
European Youth Olympic Festival Tampere, Finland 2nd 100 m 11.84
1st 4 × 100 m relay 46.30
2010 European Team Championships Belgrade, Serbia 1st 200 m 24.20
2nd 4 x 100 m relay 45.46
2011 European Team Championships Izmir, Turkey 3rd 4 x 100 m relay 44.24
European Athletics Junior Championships Tallinn, Estonia 5th 100 m 11.53
5th 200 m 23.70
2013 European U23 Championships Tampere, Finland 4th 100 m 11.55
5th 200 m 23.70
2014 European Championships Zürich, Switzerland 4th 100 m 11.30
5th 200 m 22.83
4th (h) 4 × 100 m relay 42.981
2015 European Indoor Championships Prague, Czech Republic 5th 60 m 7.11
2016 European Championships Amsterdam, Netherlands 3rd 100 m 11.25
2017 European Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 3rd 60 m 7.16
World Championships London, United Kingdom 5th 4 × 100 m relay 42.51
2018 World Indoor Championships Birmingham, United Kingdom 3rd 60 m 7.05
European Championships Berlin, Germany 4th 100 m 11.05
4th 200 m 22.45
4th 4 × 100 m relay 42.30
2019 European Indoor Championships Glasgow, United Kingdom 5th 60 m 7.16
World Championships Doha, Qatar 3rd 200 m 22.51
4th 4 × 100 m relay 42.18
2021 Olympic Games Tokyo, Japan 6th 100 m 10.99
7th 200 m 22.30
4th 4 × 100 m relay 42.08
2022 World Indoor Championships Belgrade, Serbia 1st 60 m 6.96
World Championships Eugene, United States 5th 100 m 10.91
8th 200 m 22.55
7th 4 × 100 m relay 42.81
European Championships Munich, Germany 2nd 100 m 10.99
1st 200 m 22.32

1Did not finish in the final

Personal bests

Event Time (sec) Wind Venue Date Notes
100 metres 10.89 +0.6 m/s Zurich, Switzerland 24 June 2022 NR
200 metres 22.05 +0.9 m/s Eugene, OR, USA 19 July 2022 NR
60 metres indoor 6.96 Belgrade, Serbia 18 March 2022 NR
4 × 100 m relay 42.05 Tokyo, Japan 5 August 2021 NR
4 × 200 m relay 1:31.75 Nassau, Bahamas 25 May 2014 NR

Miscellaneous

ETH Zurich student organization Swissloop's entry to the 2018 edition of the Hyperloop competition was a transport capsule named Mujinga, after Kambundji.[19]

References

  1. ^ a b About me Archived 2 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine on her website, 2 July 2018.
  2. ^ "Mujinga Kambundji". Olympedia.org. OlyMADmen. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  3. ^ "Pour les parents de Mujinga Kambundji, "l'équilibre familial passe avant le sport"". La Liberté. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  4. ^ "Junge Bernerin bricht Leichtathletikrekorde". Der Bund. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  5. ^ a b "Mega-happy Mujinga Kambundji". European Athletics Association. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. ^ Schönenberger, Carl (2 August 2009). "Meitschi Kambundji ist ein Juwel!". Blick. Retrieved 23 July 2010.
  7. ^ "Athlétisme: Mujinga Kambundji 5e du 200m européen" [Athletics: Mujinga Kambundji 5th in European 200m]. Radio Télévision Suisse (in French). 15 August 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  8. ^ "Olympic". Archived from the original on 6 August 2016.
  9. ^ "Schippers wins second European 100m gold in Amsterdam | REPORT | World Athletics".
  10. ^ https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/5151/AT-100-W-sf----.RS4.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  11. ^ https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/5151/AT-4X1-W-h----.RS4.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  12. ^ https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competitiondocuments/pdf/5151/AT-4X1-W-f----.RS6.pdf[bare URL PDF]
  13. ^ "Kambundji geht aufs Ganze". Berner Zeitung (in German). 24 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  14. ^ "Von Neuanfang zu Neuanfang". Berner Zeitung (in German). 22 January 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2018.
  15. ^ "200 Metres Result | IAAF World Athletics Championships, DOHA 2019".
  16. ^ Crumley, Euan (18 March 2022). "Special run means the world to Kambundji". AW. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  17. ^ "Kambundji pips Asher-Smith to 200m title".
  18. ^ "Gina Luckenkemper wins women's 100m European title in Munich after photo finish".
  19. ^ Stalder, Helmut. "Mit dieser superschnellen Transportkapsel will ein ETH-Team den Hyperloop-Wettbewerb von Elon Musk gewinnen | NZZ". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 8 April 2022.

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by Swiss Sportswoman of the Year
2019
Succeeded by
Incumbent
Olympic Games
Preceded by Flagbearer for  Switzerland
(with Max Heinzer)
Tokyo 2020
Succeeded by
Incumbent

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