Michael Phillips in Manchester
Monday July 11, 2005
The Guardian
It has been the week to find the athlete who could emerge as a gold medallist for the Olympic Games in London in 2012. Yesterday one of the names who has been talked about showed that Britain might not have to wait seven years for success.
Nathan Douglas, 22, achieved what for many a year has been the unthinkable - he wiped Jonathan Edwards’s name from the record book. On the second and final day of the world and Commonwealth Trials and AAA Championships at the SportCity Stadium, Douglas jumped 17.64 metres to break the event best of 17.59m that Edwards had set five years ago.
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Edwards, Britain’s world record holder, retired from the sport in 2003 and was commentating on the event for BBC Television. “That jump takes Nathan to another level,” he said. “It was the performance of the championships.”
The athlete from the Oxford City club began the day with a personal best of 17.27m, set on Tuesday night in Lausanne, but he extended it twice yesterday. He jumped 17.36m in the first round and then took it to 17.64m with a superb second jump.
It will be 10 years next month that Edwards set the world record of 18.29m when he won the world championships in Gothenburg. “I remember watching that and it did inspire me,” Douglas said. "How could it not? We have a great tradition of triple jumping in Britain and I want to do all I can to carry it on.
“It gives me a great deal of confidence. I had had some problems during the European Cup and in Lausanne. Even though I jumped 17.27m, there were some big mistakes in that.”
Douglas, the defending champion, was never challenged. Steven Shalders, of Cardiff, was second with 17.00m and third was Phillips Idowu, the Commonwealth silver medallist, with 16.29m.
Douglas will now go to Helsinki next month as an unexpected medal hope in a British team where there may not be too many others.
For the first time anyone can remember, the team for the world championships is not even being selected today after the trials. Only 21 athletes have achieved the qualifying A standard, though Dave Collins, the national performance director, said: "It will give us a team of between 47 and 50 athletes eventually [because of B-Standard selections]. Like the European Cup [when the men were relegated], it does not tell us anything we do not know.
“The disappointments are that we have many athletes out injured but not enough hitting A standards. But we had some good races and the good thing is that we have the start we need in some events.”
The world championship team will be picked after the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on Friday week and though the men may not have too many medal opportunities in Helsinki, Christian Malcolm could be Britain’s best chance of making the podium from a track final.
Last month, he won the 200m at the European Cup. He looked superb all weekend. He finished third in the 100m on Saturday but yesterday triumphed over the longer sprint distance, his better event, with a performance that displayed every reason why he is running so well this year.
Malcolm was in lane five, with Marlon Devonish on his inside. A day earlier, Devonish had been disqualified for a false start in the 100m but however hard he tried, he could not pass Malcolm.
The Welshman won in 20.65, battling away to fend off the challenge of Devonish, who was second in 20.66, a season’s best, with Chris Lambert third in 21.37.
Malcolm showed great tenacity to win. “Marlon is in great, great shape,” he said. "He was unfortunate yesterday so I knew I had to be on my game today.
"I am definitely looking forward to the world championships now because everything has gone really well for me this season.
“I am surprised how well they have gone. I am very happy. I just want to make the final in Helsinki because I know this time around that I will get it right.”
Michael East was the only British man to reach an individual track final in Athens and though he has proved this weekend that he is back from injury, he was not quick enough to halt the progress of a youngster from an area rich in distance-running tradition.
Nick McCormick, 23, who is coached by Lindsey Dunn, runs for Morpeth Harriers, where he is advised by the North-east’s greatest athletics hero, Brendan Foster, the 1976 Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist.
McCormick has had a fine season of progression and yesterday it reached its peak when he won the 1500m in 3min 37.05sec ahead of Andrew Baddeley.
McCormick’s time was easily inside the Commonwealth Games qualifying mark of 3.40.00. “The AAA title sounds fantastic,” he said. “I was down and out of the sport with injury problems and was probably not going to run again. But here I am two years later with the AAA title. It is great for the north-east because it has been 20 years since we won it.”