Phillips Idowu leaps 17.58m at UK Olympic Trials (© Getty Images)
Despite a desperate attempt to return to his best and be able to defend his Olympic title, Sweden’s Christian Olsson has had to withdraw from the Beijing Olympic Games after he, again, injured his hamstring at the Stockholm Super Grand Prix.
Olsson, who after winning every major championship title between 2001 and 2004 has been plagued by injuries, has left the men’s Triple Jump deprived of a clear leader. Since his reign, World titles have gone to Walter Davis of the US who failed to qualify for Beijing and Nelson Evora of Portugal whose 17.24m season’s best sees him lie in 17th position in the world lists!
So could it be that Phillips Idowu, the man who improved on World record holder Jonathan Edwards’ national indoor record to win the World Indoor title in 17.75m this winter in Valencia, will again follow the footsteps of the great Edwards’ and claim gold for Great Britain?
Edwards, who won the title in Sydney 2000, sees Idowu as the best candidate for Olympic glory and looking at the stats one can’t really disagree with the statement.
Idowu not only leads the world lists at 17.58m, he has set three of the ten best marks this year and is the only athlete to have jumped no fewer than five times over 17.35m.
The British champion has also been undefeated since he finished sixth at the Osaka World Championships last year and will aim at making it onto the podium in what should be his third consecutive Olympic final.
The strongest opposition is expected to come from the Caribbean with the Cuban pair of Arnie David Giralt and Alexis Copello both having improved their personal bests to 17.50m this year. The always strong Cuban squad will be completed by Hector Dairo Fuentes, himself a 17.43m performer this year. The island’s best result in the event is a second place finish by Yoel Garcia in 2000.
Grenada’s Randy Lewis who can boast a national record 17.49m is also capable of improving on his country’s best ever result at the Olympic Games: Alleyne Francique’s fourth place finish at 400m in 2004.
The US have not only missed out on every Olympic title since Kenny Harrison’s win back in 1996 but on every medal! This time they will be represented by Aarik Wilson, Kenta Bell and Rafeeq Curry with only Wilson having gone beyond 17.30m this year.
The Bahamas’ Leevan Sands and Brazil’s Jadel Gregorio complete the American challenge.
If the defending champion will be absent, the rest of the Athens podium will return. Defending silver medallist Marian Oprea who is also the reigning European champion stands at 17.28m this season but one can expect the Romanian to rise to the occasion while defending bronze medallist Danil Burkenya, the fifth furthest triple jumper this year at 17.48m leads an amazingly competitive Russian squad with Aleksandr Petrenko and Igor Spasovkhodskiy both beyond 17.35m too.
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
