Phillips Idowu Wins Triple Jump Gold

3 months ago 19th Aug 19:44

Phillips Idowu fulfilled his long promising potential last night as he leapt to World Championship gold in the triple jump.

Idowu had to produce a personal best of 17.73 metres, which is also the longest jump in the world this year, to claim Great Britain’s second gold medal of the championship.

This title should ease the thirty year olds Olympic disappointment twelve months ago when he only managed to bring home silver, despite being the favourite for gold.

He was beaten that day by Portuguese jumper Nelson Evora and, for the first couple of rounds at least, it looked like Evora was going to win the world title too.

But Idowu kept his cool producing the winning jump in the third round, despite not hitting the board and loosing twenty centimetres.

He told the BBC: “It was a long time coming. I've worked hard and knew I had a big jump in me and I'm just grateful it came out at the right time.

“I didn't think 17.73 was going to be enough and I feel like I had more in reserve.

He becomes the first British male athlete to win a world title since Jonathan in Edmonton, Canada in 2001.

But it wasn’t a good night for defending 400 metre champion Christine Ohuruogu who could only manage fifth in the final.

But it was a night for long awaited success as American Sanya Richards finally got her hands on a 400 metre global title, after being denied on so many occasions.

Richards has been the athlete to beat this season over one lap of the track and has ran with conviction all year in a bid to put her Olympic disappointment behind her, loosing to Ohuruogu in Beijing.

David Greene has been the surprise package of the British team at the Championships in Berlin making the 400m hurdles final, for the very first time on a global stage.

And while there was an outside chance of a medal Greene came seventh with a time of 48.68. America’s Kerron Clement defending his title with Javier Culson in second and Bershawn Jackson in third.