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The Sun
6 days ago
- Sport
- The Sun
‘Provided I know I am on my deathbed' – Brit legend Jonathan Edwards hopes world record lasts until the day he dies
JONATHAN EDWARDS hopes his triple jump world record remains his until the day he dies. Thirty years ago today, the Brit hopped, skipped and jumped his way to gold at the 1995 World Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. 5 5 5 5 His unprecedented mark of 18.29 metres – or 60 feet – was the best ever in history, smashing the previous best of 17.97 metres set by American Willie Banks in June 1985. It is one of the longest-standing world records in track and field for both male and female competitions. It is a moment that has withstood the test of time, proving untouchable at the next eight summer Olympics and 14 world championships. Bermudan Brian Wellman could only muster 17.62 metres as he finished second, coming 67 centimetres behind. Prior to his incredible jump, which was his second attempt of the 12-man final, he had actually gone 18.16 metres with the first, which was a world record in itself. Edwards, now 59, is the only British athlete to hold a world record in an Olympic-distance event and it is unlikely that anyone is going to surpass him any time soon. Speaking on an episode of PUMA's Go Wild podcast series, the London-born, Devon-raised ace – who became Olympic champion in Sydney 2000 – hopes the record lasts for a long, long time. Asked by former hurdling world-record holder Colin Jackson how he would feel if someone else went further, Edwards said: 'I'd be upset, for sure. 5 'I mean, it's been so long. It's almost part of me. Athletics, in essence, is about the demonstration of human capability. And, of course, your own capability. 'The excitement of breaking a personal best is always the biggest excitement. Noah Lyles sends clear message to sprint rival Kenny Bednarek after being shoved during fiery 200m race 'And when that personal best is the best there has ever been, it's a remarkable thing. It's a mindblowing thing. 'So, for that to go and not to be the world-record holder, but I don't think that will be easy. "I'd hoped it would get to 30 years. 'It's more than I could ever hope to achieve in sport. 'I'll be fine, I'll be fine, but yeah, it will be a sad day. I mean it would be pretty cool to be on my deathbed and still be a world-record holder. 'I'll take that. Provided I know I am on my deathbed. Just a thought, to die as world-record holder would be pretty cool.' Edwards, who describes himself as a 'late developer', famously declared 'he would never jump on a Sunday' due to his religious beliefs – though he later 'lost my faith'. He might have the world record yet the triple jump record at his secondary school is 'held by a guy called Stephen Ojomoh who went on to play rugby for England, he was like 6ft 3in when he was 13 or 14'. In his career, he won Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth titles outdoors -- a tremendous feat. On his physical appearance as an athlete – he was nicknamed Titch for being small and slight – he said: 'There was nothing remarkable about me. 'I remember a newspaper article once. One of the journalists described me as looking more like a geography teacher than a triple jumper. 'So, there's nothing about me physically which would make you think that I was going to be a world-record holder. 'And I think all of my competitors looked at me and thought: 'God, if Edwards can do it, surely we can do it, because what's special about him?' 'When people say to me, what was it that made you so good at triple jumping? I say: 'Well, I wasn't a jumper. I was a sprinter. And I could bounce.' 'I could maintain my speed on the contacts. So my final jump in the world record was seven metres. 'So, my ability was perhaps different from everybody else's and I think that's probably why it hasn't been broken.'
BBC News
6 days ago
- Sport
- BBC News
My 30-year-old world record 'not a good sign for athletics'
"I don't think it's a good sign for athletics as a sport that you have a record that stands for 30 years."Jonathan Edwards' pride in his triple jump world record is tinged with surprise at the fact no-one has surpassed the 18.29m he set on 7 August 1995 at the World Championships in Gothenburg."When you think of all the developments in sports science, nutrition, training methods, all of those things, I don't think it necessarily speaks to a really healthy and thriving sport, if I'm honest," Edwards, who is Britain's only track and field world record holder in regularly contested events, told BBC that plays down his own achievement. Only seven other men in history have surpassed the 18m if you subscribe to the view that records are there to be broken, then why is this one still standing? Edwards was 'remarkable' When Edwards arrived at Gothenburg's Ullevi Stadium, no-one had ever jumped beyond 18 metres in 'legal' wind the first two rounds of the competition, he had managed it landed beyond the measuring board with his opening-round jump of 18.16m and then added another 13cm to the record around 20 minutes later in what is one of British athletics' greatest was the event's form athlete that year, arriving in Sweden as the world record holder after jumping 17.98 to beat American Willie Banks' previous mark by one centimetre and had also recorded the longest jump in history of a wind-assisted has always described himself as a sprinter, rather than a jumper, likening his contact with the ground through the hop-step-jump phases to a pebble skimming the water and at 71kg was also lighter than many other had changed his technique that season, adopting a double arm action - rather than an alternate arm movement - that he said made him "so well balanced" through all of his nevertheless he was far from confident, admitting that he bought sunglasses at Gothenburg airport to hide his eyes when he was warming up so his competitors "wouldn't see the fear" he his rivals saw was very different."In our training sessions, we studied Edwards videos day in, day out," Jerome Romain, who took the bronze medal in Gothenburg, said. "It was just remarkable the things that he did."Silver medallist Brian Wellman believes Edward set the record because "he was the most efficient triple jumper out there". Athletics 'hasn't kept pace' with other sports Edwards believes part of the reason he still holds the triple jump world record is because athletics has not "kept pace with the professionalisation of sport", which means talented young athletes are choosing other sports instead because they can earn more money."It doesn't offer the same rewards as other sports," he said."If you're a talented young kid, you wouldn't necessarily pick track and field. You wouldn't certainly pick a field event where the rewards are less than on the track."When four-time Olympic champion Michael Johnson launched Grand Slam Track this season, where athletes compete for a top prize of $100,000 (£75,125) at each meet, the disciplines were limited to track in the sport has also been falling, with UK Sport cutting funding for athletics for the second successive Olympic cycle, announcing last year that UK Athletics would get 8% less for the 2028 Los Angeles Games than it had for Paris in track and field has also been falling, according to England Athletics, and youngsters are increasingly dropping out. Technology may not be helping Three of the five longest held men's world records in the most commonly contested events are jumps: the high jump, long jump and triple jump records were all set between 1991 and yet, technology has advanced since then, including in Edwards thinks the carbon fibre plates in today's running shoes may not actually be helping jumpers in contrast to the running events where records have continued to be broken."I wonder whether or not a carbon fibre plate is able to cope with the intensity of that impact and then offer anything on the rebound, because that's what I think we're seeing on the track."You're seeing athletes who are actually getting a spring effect, and that's why you're seeing some of the times that you're getting. But the forces are so extreme in triple jump, indeed long jump, even high jump when people take off and I'm not sure that that sort of trampoline effect is able to have the same impact."Dr Tom Allen, sports engineering expert at Manchester Metropolitan University and University of Canterbury Visiting Erskine Fellow, agrees that while the shoes offer gains in running economy, the impact of the shoes on jumping events is "likely to be small or negligible". Will the record ever be broken? The closest anyone has come to Edwards' record was 10 years ago when American Christian Taylor jumped world leading distance this year is 17.80m, while last year's Olympic gold was won with 17.86m."He [Edwards] can rest easy for a while," Romain said. "This is not an easy feat, I'm telling you."Edwards says he does not know how he will feel if his record goes."It's been a part of me for so long now," he said. "Actually it would be nice if it carried on."It would be quite a good funeral [if there was] something down the aisle - 18.29m."
