BY ARMSTRONG VAS
Doha: Reigning Olympic and World Champion in triple jump Christian Taylor (pictured) aims to break the 18.29m ‘barrier’ but is taking one event at a time ahead of the 2013 World Championships.
“Jonathan David Edwards is the idol everyone is chasing, everybody wants to be like him. He has the record (18.29m), and I want to get past that barrier,” Taylor said yesterday.
“Obviously, if you want to get something different you have to do things differently,” added Taylor.
British athlete Edwards, now 46 years-old, set the triple jump record at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden and his 18.29m record still stands.
Taylor who is here for the opening round of the Diamond League in Doha, said: “I am going for the world leading mark tomorrow. The opening competition was very good, very strong. I got to 17.12. I was aiming for 17 and tomorrow, we will be going for the world mark. I am trying to get into a good rhythm,” said the 22-year-old.
The American, who won the triple jump title with a distance of 17.96m, beating defending champion Phillips Idowu at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, has put a high price tag on the title and has warned his opponents that nothing is going to come easy for them.
“Everybody is saying to me that you got to defend your title. But for me it is a clean slate. I know everybody is going to be after that title. I do not have the title on my hand. I want to start as hungry as in 2011, I want start on a clean slate, in every competition I want to put my mark on that title,” he said.
“It is mine and is not easy for the taking, so I am going out there as hungry as in 2011,” he said.
Successfully defending the title will be something unique, Taylor said.
“I have never done it before, so I do not the know the feeling of retaining the title, but defending the title will be special, more than the first one I got. It will be blessing to retain that,” he said about the August 10 to 18 championships taking place in the Russian capital.
A lot has changed for him since he won the title in 2011.
“Winning the World Championships was one of the defining moments and put me where I am now. Earlier, people said this guy can only jump in US, but people know that I can jump abroad and compete with the best of them and I am grateful for that opportunity,” said Taylor, who has had been watching a lot of videos of Swedish long jumper Christian Olsson.
“Christian Olsson ... I watch him a lot, I watch a lot of films, for his consistency and his strength,” Taylor said.
In Doha, Taylor’s main rivals will be Frenchman Benjamin Compaore and Tosin Oke of Nigeria, who finished sixth and seventh in London Olympics.
Coached by Rana Reider of England, Taylor is looking forward to the new season and the return of rivals like Will Claye of the United States, Teddy Tamgho of France and the former world champion from Britain, Phillips Idowu which he argued will result in raising the bar in several competitions.
“The great thing is Teddy is back, Phillips, has not been seen but believe he will be back,” he said.
“(Fabrizio) Donato, I cannot believe he is jumping. With the period we are in and with good competition, good results are to come out, so this is the time I am getting use to and my coach and I are going to go to the drawing board, basically go back to competing, when you go head to head big things are going to happen and we will great results, so I am excited about it,” said Taylor.
THE PENINSULA
