Phillips Idowu Wins European Gold
30 July 2010
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Phillips Idowu put his troubled season behind him last night as he leapt to personal best of 17.81m to claim triple jump gold.
Idowu won world championship gold twelve months go in Beijing and now had just one medal missing from his collection... and that is Olympic gold.
He led from his first jump as he laid down a marker of 17.46m to event favourite Teddy Tamgho, who has the longest jump of the season with 17.90m.
The Frenchman had no answer for Idowu as he could only manage 17.45, which was good enough for bronze, Marian Oprea took silver with a jump of 17.51.
It was the fourth round when Idowu notched up a personal best when he pulled out a huge jump of 17.81 to knock out the rest of the competition.
He chose not to take his sixth and final jump as he celebrated and can start to put a difficult season behind him.
Speaking to the BBC after he had secured victory Idowu said: "It's been a tough year, I don't know how but it just seemed to come," he added.
"I knew I would have to do a big jump to win here ever since March [when Tamgho won the world indoor crown with 17.90] from the way Teddy was jumping. But me and my coach got it right and we planned for this day.
"I suffered a few defeats earlier in the season and got a bit of stick. I had to be strong and it's come to pass."
While Nathan Douglas, who has been struggling with injury all year, did make the final he was unable to make any impact and finished down in tenth.
And it was an evening of great perfomrances from tem GB as Martyn Bernard won brozne in the high jump as he battled through horrendous conditions to pick up a second outdoor medal, he won silver st the Commonwealth Games in 2006.
It was a nervous opening for Bernard as he need three attempts to clear 2.23m but his first time clearance at 2.29 later in the competition saw him lead the standings.
But he could't clear 2.31 and claimed a bronze medal as Aleksander Shustov and Ivan Ukhov battled it out for gold. And with a jump of 2.33 it was Shustov who begame European champion as Ukhov could only manage 2.31m for silver.
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