Triple jumper Jonathan Edwards believes that the young pretenders have a way to go until they threaten his record - Telegraph
Athletics
Triple jumper Jonathan Edwards believes that the young pretenders have a way to go until they threaten his record
On the 20th anniversary of his jump of 18.29m at the 1995 World Championships,    Edwards reflects on his record which has yet to be bettered
Jonathan Edwards retired after the 2003 World Championships. Photo: Telegraph
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With a training top draped over his head, Jonathan Edwards sat hunched, alone, attempting to come to terms with what he had just achieved.
Having hopped, skipped and jumped his way to an astonishing distance of 18.43 metres, Edwards did not know whether to laugh or cry.
The longest jump of his career was almost half a metre further than any triple jumper had legally managed in history, but Edwards knew he had been denied the world record courtesy of a wind reading of 2.4m per second – over the legal maximum of 2m per second.
History had been made in Lille, France, but if any record books chose to remember the occasion, Edwards’s jump would always have an asterisk next to it. Six weeks out from the 1995 World Championships though, the jump promised one thing – Edwards was ready to go long.
“The wind-assisted 18.43m is still the most amazing day of my athletics career because that one jump transformed everything,” says Edwards. “It meant that I went to the World Championships in Gothenburg in amazing shape, knowing that if I jumped well I would break the world record.
Edwards won one Olympic gold and one Olympic silver in a glittering career
“But I was also incredibly scared that it might not happen and the whole season would be deemed a failure if I didn’t complete it with the world title.
“I had never been under that kind of scrutiny before and I did feel immense pressure, it being the first time I had gone into a major competition as one of the headline acts.”
Things could not have begun more perfectly. Requiring just one effort to qualify top of his group, Edwards’s exertion had been almost nil as he put his feet up for two days ahead of the final.
Forty-eight hours later the clouds were thick in the early evening sky as he stood at the end of his run preparing to kick off his gold medal quest on Aug 7, 1995.
His initial aim was a simple one: “I just wanted to get a decent jump in, get myself in the competition and then build from there.” The triple jump invariably appears unnatural to the untrained eye. Seemingly battling against the will of their body, it looks to be a relief for competitors when they hit sand.
Pichardo's jump of 18.08m is the closest anybody has come to Edwards
On that evening in Sweden Edwards did nothing of the sort. Landing beyond the distance indicator board, which stopped at 18m, the Briton soared after every step, knowing instinctively from the execution of the three distinct phases that he had achieved something special.
Arms aloft as he jumped up and down waiting for the official distance, Edwards was certain that, with a wind reading of 1.3m, he had become the first man to legally jump 18m.
When the scoreboard flashed 18.16 his evening’s work was complete with his very first jump and the gold medal was almost certainly his. But just 20 minutes later there was more.
“I wasn’t aiming to break the world record,” he says, exactly 20 years since his feat. “I just wanted to settle my nerves and see what everyone else jumped, so to break the world record was perfect.
“On my second jump there is a smile on my face before I set off and I point my finger as though to say, 'I know I can jump better than I did in the first round’. The adrenaline was still there and I knew as soon as I landed that it was the world record again.
Edwards was elected President of the Wenlock Olympian Games in 2011
“I land in the pit, I stand there and I shrug my shoulders as if to say, 'I’ve just broken the world record again’. I just knew from the feeling that it was further.” It was significantly further: 18.29.
“It’s the proudest achievement of my career, more so than the Olympic gold medal,” says Edwards. “My motivation as an athlete was always to make the most of my ability and the ultimate measure of that is your personal best.
“My personal best happens to be the best ever, which is the ultimate.
“Winning the Olympic title was amazing but I didn’t jump particularly well. You probably get more recognition for being Olympic champion than a world record but for me personally I still can’t quite believe that I’ve triple jumped further than anyone else ever.”
That the record remains is testament to just how superior Edwards was and still is. Alongside Mike Powell’s 8.95 long jump world record from 1991 and Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 high jump record set in 1993, Edwards’s mark is an athletics phenomenon.
Christian Taylor is one of the men hoping to one day jump further than Edwards
But now, after a fallow period spanning two decades, the event is in the midst of one of its finest ever years, with American Christian Taylor twice breaking 18m and Cuban sensation Pedro Pablo Pichardo matching that feat, as well as three more times going beyond 17.93.
So does Edwards think his mark is finally under threat?
“The thing that is different about this year is that they have consistently produced really long jumps. It’s a phenomenally high level, which makes you think that they might, in the right conditions, with the two of them battling against each other, produce something huge. But even though they have jumped 18m the world record is 18.29, which is the best part of a quarter of a metre longer.
“I’d be ready to shake somebody’s hand and I’d be delighted for them. But they’ve got a bit to go yet.”