Long jumpers Mitchell Watt and Henry Frayne look set to complete a rare medal double at London Olympics
• by: Mike Hurst
• From:The Daily Telegraph
• March 29, 201212:00AM
Golden hopes: Long jumpers Henry Frayne (L) and Mitchell Watt ® with coach Gary Bourne. Picture: Gregg Porteous Source: The Daily Telegraph
IT’S been 44 years since Australia won two medals in the same event at an Olympic athletics stadium, but almost out of nowhere long jumpers Mitchell Watt and Henry Frayne each look ready to climb the podium in London.
Both train together in Brisbane under the astute coaching of Gary Bourne who believes they are each now capable of winning a medal if not exactly duplicating the 1-2 finish by Maureen (Caird) Jones and Pam (Kilborn) Ryan in that thrilling 80m hurdles race - or the silver-bronze runs by Raelene Boyle and Jenny Lamy in the 200m - both at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games.
Since the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, the only other occasion on which two Australians stood on the Olympic dais after the same athletics event was at the 1964 Games in Tokyo where Betty Cuthbert won the inaugural women’s 400m with Judy Pollock earning bronze.
There is a high performance basis underpinning enthusiasm for Watt and Frayne, even though their results have come within the last 18 months. In fact, neither made it to compete at the most recent Commonwealth Games in October 2010.
Since then, Watt, (8.54m) an economics-law student, has broken Sydney Olympic silver medallist "Jumping’’ Jai Taurima’s (8.49m) national record. He also won silver at the world outdoor championship in Korea last year.
And Frayne, whose uncle Bruce was unlucky not to have reached the 400m final at the 1984 LA Olympics, also claimed silver on a countback with a leap of 8.23m at the world indoor championships in Istanbul this month.
"I reckon those two are a chance,’’ their laconic coached Bourne told The Daily Telegraph yesterday.
"I went through the top dozen in the world rankings and looked at their performances and while some have a jump of 8.40m, often in perfect conditions, their next best jump was 8.20m.
"I think Mitch is our best chance, but Henry is a competitor and he can challenge for a medal.’’
Although they compete in every aspect of practice routinely in Brisbane, the training partners have rarely jumped against each other in competition. In fact, Bourne thinks perhaps only once a few weeks after Frayne left Melbourne to train with Watt and Bourne, among others.
It took Bourne all of a year to sort out Frayne’s running action, stopping him over-striding which is a problem common to many triple jumpers.
Now Frayne intends to long jump in London and back up two days later for the qualifying round of the triple jump.
"The trick is going into one event (the long jump) without thinking about two,’’ Bourne said. "It isn’t the physical side of things. It’s going to be much more a psychological thing. But he’s a young boy. He doesn’t have fixed ideas about ‘can do this, can’t do that’.
"He’s so strong and he’s getting faster.
"He can certainly sit beyond 8.40m and historically that’s a silver medal over the last 12 Olympics.
"Only one can win the gold medal.
"That’ll be up to them to sort out in London.
"My job is to get them both in the best of shape.
"I’d happily take a silver in London (for Frayne) if I could get Mitch across the line for gold.’’
NOTE: Although Gary Honey (Los Angeles) and Jai Taurima (Sydney) have won Olympic silver medal for long jump, Australia’s only gold medallist in a horizontal jumps event was Anthony "Nick’’ Winter in the triple jump at the Paris Olympics in 1924. John Winter won the high jump in London 1948.
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