Mitchell Watt of Australia sets a world season lead in the DN Galan (© Hasse Sjogren / DECA Text&Bild)
Two years ago Mitchell Watt emerged as a surprise bronze medallist at the World Championships in Berlin.
It will be no surprise, however, if Watt takes Australia’s first-ever global championships gold medal when the Long Jump is decided in Daegu.
All year long, Watt has led the rankings. His 8.44m to win the Australian title in April was matched by the same distance at the Shanghai Samsung Diamond League meeting. Now, he has reached 8.54 mat the DN Galan Samsung Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, breaking Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medallist Jai Taurima’s Australian and Oceania record.
The Australian jumper followed up with an 8.45m win in London over Chris Tomlinson (8.30w) and Greg Rutherford (8.19m). Watt has the four longest jumps of the year.
Watt’s only hiccup was the heel injury sustained in his first competition in Europe. Stockholm and London confirm that is healed or at least well under control. He is ideally placed to go one better than Olympic silver medallists Theo Bruce (London 1948), Gary Honey (Los Angeles 1984) and Taurima (Sydney 2000) and go on to win a gold medal.
Next closest to Watt on the 2011 performers’ list is Zimbabwe’s multi-talented Ngonidzashe Makusha, who leapt 8.40m to win the US national collegiate title in June. Makusha was fourth in the Beijing Olympic Long Jump final, but has competed more at 100m recently, where he has a best of 9.89 (also set at the NCAA championships).
Also at the 8.40m mark is Olympic champion Irving Saladino of Panama, who defeated British pair Tomlinson (8.35m) and Rutherford (8.27) to win at the Paris SDL meeting. Now 28, Saladino is down a little from his best years, but he remains a potent threat in the event.
Yahya Berrabah, just a couple of months short of his 30th birthday, is a little older still, but the veteran Moroccan is enjoying his best season yet. He was second to Watt with a windy 8.40m in Stockholm (Saladino was third with 8.19) after jumping a wind-legal 8.37m the previous week in Barcelona.
Berrabah has a spotty championship record with a 10th in Berlin two years ago his only global final as a senior in six attempts.
Dwight Phillips has a ‘wild card’ entry as defending champion but the American has done no better than 8.07m this year. Berlin silver medallist Godfrey Mokoena has also been low-profile, with a best of 8.25m in finishing fourth in the Paris SDL behind Saladino, Tomlinson and Rutherford.
Neither of the two British stars competed in the UK championships so they appear to be setting themselves for Daegu. Either is capable of a medal.
France’s veteran Salim Sdiri emerged with an 8.27 in Lausanne recently, but has done little else this year.
Best of the Americans this year is Will Claye, with a distance of 8.29m. He is also qualified in the triple jump. Marquise Goodwin won the US championship with a wind-aided 8.33m. His wind-legal best this year is 8.17m.
Australia’s other threat of recent years, world indoor champion Fabrice Lapierre, has been out of sorts most of the year, producing a best of only 8.02m. He is a big-occasion competitor, which counts in his favour.
Russian jumper Aleksandr Menkov, who does not turn 20 until November, has a best of 8.28m this year and has wins in the European Team Championships and the European U23 championships to back that up. He is one for the future, but does the future start now?
Len Johnson for the IAAF
