Jonathan Edwards' great strides
Steve Smythe analyses the career of the man who has held the world triple jump record for 25 years
You could have got long odds that the athlete who had finished sixth in the 1994 European Championships and had been 23rd and 35th in his two Olympic appearances would dominate the triple jump over the next few seasons and still hold the world record 25 years later.
This was especially so as at the end of the 1994 season Jonathan Edwards was diagnosed with the debilitating Epstein-Barr virus. At the age of 28 and after 13 years of triple jumping, he could have easily retired as a very good but not great athlete. Fortunately he carried on!
During a stupendous 1995 he dominated the event and smashed the world record. He was never quite as dominant in future years but he added an Olympic and a further world title in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
The key to Edwards’ success was his speed. His last two strides were faster than the quadruple Olympic long jump champion Carl Lewis was recorded at in his approach to the take off board and the American had a 9.78 100m PB!
The Briton's final medal count is:
» One Olympic gold and one Olympic silver
» Two World Championships golds, one silver and two bronzes
» One European Championships gold and one bronze
» One Commonwealth gold and two silver
» Six European Cup wins and one second and one third
» Two World Cup wins and a third
» One Goodwill Games win
» One European Indoor gold
» One World Indoor silver
» Four AAA titles (1989, 1994, 1998 and 2001, plus he was first Briton in 1991)
» One English Schools title (15.01m in 1984)
He missed the 1991 World Championships and 1989 European Cup Final as they were on Sundays and that went against his religious beliefs at the time.
He topped the world rankings in 1995, 1998 and 2000-2002 and was second in 1996 and 1999 and third in 1997 and 2003.
The average of his 10 best competitions is 17.954m which has been surpassed by Christian Taylor - just - with 17.961m, but it's worth noting that Edwards did jump 18.16m and 18.29m in the same competition which would put him clearly ahead if you could count the 18.16m.
Below we cover 15 of his most memorable events.
1st 18.29/1.3 (world record)
He went into the event as the world record-holder with 17.98m and then in the first round he made history with an 18.16m leap. That was made up of phases of 6.12m, 5.19m and 6.85m.
He was not finished though as in the second round he put together a more modest opening hop of 6.05m, followed by a step of 5.22m which left him four centimetres down on his opening jump, but this time he produced a superb 7.02m jump to add 13 centimetres to his record from 15 minutes earlier.
He passed three of the last four rounds but did jump 17.49m in the fifth round. He won gold by a huge 67 centimetres (more than two feet) – it was the biggest winning margin in a global event for 99 years!
His dominance (he won all 14 competitions) won him the IAAF athlete of the year and BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.
1st 18.43/2.4
The longest triple jump in history came before Edwards was a world record-holder. In the first round he jumped a wind-assisted PB of 17.90m to be in the vicinity of the legal world record held by Willie Banks of 17.97m.
However, that was nothing compared to his second round jump. The wind was only slightly over the limit at 2.4m/sec but it was measured at an astonishing 18.43m and actually from toe to heel was in the region of 18.60m.
The wind dropped in the third round (0.5) which allowed him to set a British record of 17.72m.
In the next round he proved that the 18.43m was not a one-off as he jumped 18.39/2.4 - far and away the second longest jump in history.
The winning margin was an exceptional 1.29m as Jacek Butkiewicz was second with a wind-assisted 17.14m.
1st 17.71/0.2
After winning the world title in 1995, Edwards had to settle for the minor medals in the next three global championships. In Sydney, he was competing in his fourth Games but at 34 years old, he knew it was his last chance to add an Olympic title.
He went in as favourite as the world leader with 17.62m but started disappointingly with a 17.12m leap. He improved to 17.37m in the second round to take the lead but Denis Kapustin responded with a 17.46m.
In the third round, Edwards improved his world lead to 17.71m and that was enough for victory and for him to become the oldest ever champion at the event.
Cuban Yoel Garcia improved to 17.47m to take the silver medal in the last round as two other Britons - Larry Achike and Phillips Idowu - made the top six.
1st 17.92/0.7
Edwards' bid to regain the title started badly and he only made the final with his last jump of the qualifying round.
He also started badly in the final with a modest 16.84m, followed by a huge foul.
He got it right though in the third round and his 17.92m was the longest jump in the world for three years.
It’s worth noting his two opening phases of 5.97m and 5.43m gave him a clear advantage on his equivalent world record jump but he was only able to produce a 6.52m last phase.
Christian Olsson finished a distant second with 17.47m and the Swede would inherit Edwards' world title in 2003 with a 17.72m leap as Edwards bowed out in his final competition with a 12th and last place.
1st 17.99/0.5
After a few relative disappointing seasons he bounced back in 1998, a year in which he had earlier won the European Indoor Championships and Goodwill Games, but his big target was this event.
He was a class apart and won by over half a metre with a still-standing championships record of 17.99m from the defending champion Kapustin (17.45m).
It was to be his fourth-best winning mark.
2nd 17.88/0.9
He went into Olympic year as a huge favourite but Kenny Harrison, the 1991 world champion, was clearly in stunning form, winning the US trials with a wind-assisted 18.01m.
The American started the Olympic final with an Olympic and American record of 17.99m while Edwards struggled with two fouls though stayed in the contest with a 17.13m third round.
The Briton showed better form in round four with a 17.88m leap but Harrison responded by improving his Olympic record to 18.09m - the third best jump of all time after Edwards’ record leaps.
The Briton hit back with two 18m leaps of his own but they were both fouls and his 22-win streak came to an end, with the minor consolation of easily the greatest non winning performance in history.
Edwards did gain revenge in his next five competitions at Zurich, Gateshead, Berlin, Brussels and the IAAF GP Final in Milan which at least won him the Track and Field News top spot in the merit rankings.
1st 17.98/1.8
With the benefit of altitude and clearly in astonishing form after the wind-assisted 18.43m, it seemed only a matter of time until he would become world record-holder. He duly obliged but his second round mark of 17.98m with a very helpful 1.8m/sec tailwind was actually a bit of a disappointment, adding a mere centimetre to Banks’ record, and he admitted he did not jump at his best as he won from Yoelbi Quesada (17.46m) by over half a metre.
1st 17.86/0.7
His 2002 season was not perfect as he was only third in the Europeans but he beat Olsson 5-4 in their nine meetings and topped the world merit rankings but also had the best jump by winning his first Commonwealth title.
He was given a good battle by fellow Brit and future world champion Idowu (17.68m) but produced his last great championship winning mark - at the age of 36 - with a brilliant 17.86m in front of a big and excited British crowd.
1st 18.00/1.3
Three weeks after winning world gold in Gothenburg, Edwards competed in front of a British crowd at Crystal Palace and he smashed the UK all comers' record with yet another 18m leap to win by a huge margin. It was a distance that but for his Swedish win would have been a world record.
He had jumped a wind-assisted 18.08m in Sheffield before his world title leaps.
2nd 17.74/0.9
Yoelbi Quesada, who had been seventh, 12th and fourth in the three previous world championships, led all the way after opening with a 17.60m followed by a 17.85m Cuban record which was the biggest jump of the year.
Edwards had a bruised heel and had not competed since June. He opened with a leap of 17.33m and moved into second with a 17.66m fourth round and he improved to 17.69m in the final round. He fared better than Olympic champion Harrison, who was ninth.
3rd 17.44/0.1
His first global medal was hard fought. He was only fifth at halfway with 17.24m and moved to fourth with 17.31m in the fourth round. He improved in the fifth round to 17.44m which proved sufficient for a bronze but he was well behind Olympic champion Mike Conley who had jumps of 17.70m in round three, 17.86m in round five and 17.77m in the last round.
1st 17.34/1.7
After finishing a disastrous 35th in Olympic qualifying with a mediocre 15.76m, he bounced back spectacularly a few weeks later with his best victory to date. He won easily with a 17.34m leap with Olympic bronze medallist Frank Rutherford a distant second (17.06m). He had been third in the previous edition of the World Cup in 1989 which at that point was his best result.
3rd 17.48/0.4
He was only 11 centimetres from winning in his worst championship performance for some time as Charles Friedek (17.59m) pulled off a shock win in a poor quality event.
Edwards only managed one 17-metre jump.
1st 17.43m
Edwards did not often compete indoors but that was his best championships performance, winning by 28 centimetres from future world champion Friedek.
He did win a world indoor silver medal in 2001 but only with a modest 17.26m behind Paalo Camossi’s 17.32m.
1st 18.01/0.4
He usually saved his best for the big competitions but he achieved a rare 18 metre-plus jump with this clear win over Denis Kapustin (17.65m).
It topped the world rankings that year, was his best jump since his world record and would prove to be his second best ever legal performance.
(Photo by Mark Shearman)
» Find an interview with Jonathan Edwards in the December edition of AW magazine as he reflects on his world record performance
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