Air Saladino! 8.73m leap in Hengelo (© Jiro Mochizuki (Agence shot))
China, the hosts of the Games of XXIX Olympiad, invented paper and printing, but while consultation of a statistical list for the 2008 season clearly confirms World champion Irving Saladino as the prodigious statistical favourite for the men’s Long Jump gold thanks to his 8.73m leap in Hengelo on 24 May (he heads this nearest opponent by 27cm), a form guide, printed or otherwise, is not always enough to guarantee an Olympic title.
Saladino, 25, will be hoping that a persistent knee injury which relegated him to an also-ran at the Berlin Golden League meeting (7.92m, 7th - 1 June) only a few days after his world season lead (a problem which he openly accepts he must live with for the rest of his career) will not return to haunt his Olympic campaign.
1948 Olympic sprinter Lloyd LaBeach’s two bronze medals are Panama’s only previous athletics success in Games’ history, and while the 25-year-old Saladino with his ‘comeback’ wins in Rome (11 July) and Paris (18 July) successfully defeated many of his Beijing opponents, his respective 8.30m and 8.31m winning leaps on those occasions did not quite conjure the same picture of dominance as did his early season form.
Saladino we mustn’t also forget set an indoor Area record of 8.42m in Athens (13 Feb) this winter, with his indoor campaign immediately cut short in the third round of that competition by injury which denied him a chance to add the World Indoor crown to his global outdoor title of last summer.
That night in Athens resembled a minor hospital casualty list for the event, with the Greek champion Luis Tsatoumas also having to abandon his competition with an injury in the same round, while the then reigning World Indoor champion Ignisious Gaisah of Ghana ruptured a knee tendon!
The Ghanaian’s whole season was finished by the accident, but Tsatoumas, whose career has been a bit injury prone, has like Saladino blasted back from that indoor scare and his 8.44m win on 13 July in the Greek capital’s IAAF World Athletics Tour fixture, puts him in third place in the world this summer. The 26-year-old Greek who jumped 8.66m in June of 2007 before, yes you’ve guessed it, getting injured prior to the World championships in Osaka, has all the talent to take the Olympic crown.
Splitting the Panamanian from the Greek on the world season list is the Cuban Ibrahim Camejo, whose large personal improvement to an 8.46m PB in Bilbao on 21 June (previous best 8.34 in 2006) might mark a serious breakthrough for the 26-year-old.
The last round of the 2007 World Championships brought about a dramatic switching back and forth of positions. European champion Andrew Howe who was in the mix of that fight along with Saladino, landing at a national record of 8.47m which held the lead for two jumps, should be in the contest again for medals in Beijing.
However, Italian hopes have been dampened this year, as Howe, 23, a former World Junior 200m champion injured himself running for his country at the European Cup in Annecy on 22 June. With a best of 8.16m (second place behind Saladino in Oslo), it seems like the patriotic pursuit for Cup points in June could ironically rob Howe's nation of a potentially much bigger prize in Beijing. Howe’s appearance on the qualification runway on the evening of 16 August will be watched very keenly.
Dwight Phillips, the reigning Olympic champion, will not defend in Beijing. The American is fit but in finishing fourth at the US Trials failed to gain selection for Beijing. Phillips is listed as a team reserve but it would take physical misfortune to either Trevell Quinley (8.36), Brian Johnson (8.31), or Miguel Pate (8.24) to see him join the starting line-up.
Quinley, 26, the national champion is the surprise of the season leaping to an 8.36m PB, fifth best in the world, to take that title (improved PB from 8.22 in 2007) but has since languished at a much lower level on the European circuit with bests of 7.41m (Rome) and 7.46m (Athens).
On the season’s list Quinley is the American filling in a particularly tasty Saudi sandwich, and either or both Mohamed Salman Al Khuwalidi (8.37) or Hussein Taher Al-Sabee (8.31) have the talent to challenge for medals.
There are plenty of others over 8.20 this season, too many to mention in fact, but particularly keep an eye out for the championship experience of South Africa’s Godfrey Khotso Mokoena (8.25), the 2008 World Indoor champion, Finland’s 2005 World champs bronze medallist, Tommi Evilä (8.22 NR), Gable Garenamotse of Botswana (8.22), the 2008 African champion, and Britain’s European silver medallist Greg Rutherford (8.20).
Salim Sdiri who is now coming back to form with an 8.21m season’s best, will have everyone’s best wishes, considering the horrendous accident which saw the Frenchman speared in his side at the Rome Golden League meeting in 2007.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
