Jonathan Edwards’ 30-year-old triple jump world record ‘not a good sign for athletics’

When Edwards arrived at Gothenburg’s Ullevi Stadium, no-one had ever jumped beyond 18 metres in ‘legal’ wind conditions.

Within the first two rounds of the competition, he had managed it twice.

He landed beyond the measuring board with his opening-round jump of 18.16m and then added another 13cm to the record around 20 minutes later in what is one of British athletics’ greatest performances.

He was the event’s form athlete that year, arriving in Sweden as the world record holder after jumping 17.98 to beat American Willie Banks’ previous mark by one centimetre and had also recorded the longest jump in history of a wind-assisted 18.43m.

He has always described himself as a sprinter, rather than a jumper, likening his contact with the ground through the hop-step-jump phases to a pebble skimming the water and at 71kg was also lighter than many other athletes.

He had changed his technique that season, adopting a double arm action – rather than an alternate arm movement – that he said made him “so well balanced” through all of his phases.

But nevertheless he was far from confident, admitting that he bought sunglasses at Gothenburg airport to hide his eyes when he was warming up so his competitors “wouldn’t see the fear” he had.

What his rivals saw was very different.

“In our training sessions, we studied Edwards videos day in, day out,” Jerome Romain, who took the bronze medal in Gothenburg, said. “It was just remarkable the things that he did.”

Silver medallist Brian Wellman believes Edward set the record because “he was the most efficient triple jumper out there”.