The world championships are over, with a lot of surprises
in almost all events, but I want to talk specifically about long jump and
triple jump. In my opinion South Africa is going in a good direction in long
jump- they brought two athletes and both won medals, gold and bronze. Luvo Manyonga jumped 8.48m, but to me this guy
can jump very easily over 8.60-8.70m. He still has to work to clean and improve
his technique, but he is a talented athlete, hungry to jump as far as possible
and I think that it is something that he can work on really easily. Triple jump
was a great battle between Taylor and Claye, both good athletes, but I think Christian
Taylor is pushing too much for the world record. He has the record under his
foot and it is just a matter of time - the record will come when he least
expects it.
All the athletes played a good role, they did
everything possible to obtain a medal and that's something we have to be proud
of in all of them. We also have to be proud of those athletes who tried to
qualify for the world championships and for one reason or another they did not
make it.
Triple jump is a difficult discipline for men and
women, and apart from that, even having talent may not be enough to be a great
athlete. You have to train hard and smart, but above all you have to have a
good coach with sufficient knowledge about this discipline, someone who
believes in you, understands you and who will be able, with patience to lead
you to obtain great results.
I live in London and I was really disappointed when
I did not see any British athletes in Long Jump (male) and just one athlete in
Triple Jump that even did not make the qualification for the final. There were
no British athletes in the Female Triple Jump either and although they had 3
female athletes in long jump, the results were not good, and not what they
expected. I wonder what is happening here
in the UK with the jumps discipline- disappointingly low achievement levels
from the country that has provided the world record of triple jump. You would
imagine that here they would be able to produce greater jumpers, so what is
going on? Could it be lack of investment, problems with the coaching system? If
anyone can suggest reasons behind this situation, I’d welcome their ideas.
Although I am not her coach I would like to talk
about a long jump athlete (Jazmin Sawyers).
I have seen her compete on more than three occasions. The last time I
saw her jump was at the Olympics in Rio, but when I saw her again in London I was
really surprised that after five years she still has the same technical problems.
I heard that she changed her coach, but
for me when you take the decision to change coach, you do it to improve. Although
many times, when changing to a new coach, it can be some time before seeing the
results, but 5 years with the same problems, that is something that I cannot
understand. She is a great talent, available to reach the 7+m if she improves
her technique.
I think that in general, the team GB did a good job-
they have a lot of young talented athletes ready for the new season, and
prepared to compete with top of top from the world. I look forward to seeing their future in
athletics unfold.
