Triple Jump rivalry extends to Bislett

Idowu has been a perennial in the higher echelons of the triple jump since the start of the cen-tury (when he first achieved a 17m jump). Indeed in that time frame he has attained medals at all of the major championships – World, World Indoor, European, European Indoors and Commonwealth Games. The only title that has eluded him is the Olympic Games gold medal. A three time Olympic finalist, a victory in London later this year would be the perfect culmi-nation to an already extremely successful career.

In 2011 Idowu was favoured to defend his World Championship title in Korea, however a young collegiate athlete from USA Christian Taylor had different ideas. Taylor not only beat Idowu in the Samsung Diamond League meeting in London, but repeated that feat in Daegu, winning a competition of the highest possible standard by some 19cms. Taylor’s jump of 17.96m in Daegu was the biggest jump since the days of Jonathon Edwards and he had shown his true competitive edge on the biggest stage possible.

In their only meeting in 2012, Idowu prevailed in the rain swept conditions in Shanghai whe-re his cool head and experience in the atrocious conditions again proved that the tall Londo-ner can never be written off.

In Oslo both Taylor and Idowu will have some additional competitors to contend with. A young contender has emerged in an Olympic year and have evoked memories of their nation’s former glory in this discipline. In Russia Luc Adams revived memories of the great Viktor Saneyev in achieving 17.53m – the further jump in the world for 2012.
 
Taylor and Idowu will continue their rivalry towards London but will be mindful of the po-tential of the other youngster like Adams who will firstly challenge them in Oslo.