BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2001 | World Athletics

Jonathan Edwards gave Britain its first gold of the World Championships with a stunning performance in the triple jump.

The Gateshead athlete produced a jump of 17.92 metres in the third round to put him into a massive lead which was never challenged.

Edwards beat his closest rival Christian Olsson, of Sweden, by 45 centimetres, while Russian Igor Spasovkhodski took the bronze on 17.44m

Now a two-time world champion, the Olympic champion had hinted at what was to come in the second round when he looked to have jumped over 18m in the second round.

But the jump was ruled out because Edwards was ruled to have been 0.6 centimetres over the mark on take-off

Unfortunately, cramp hindered Edwards' later jumps and he collapsed in agony while attempting a final round jump.

In what was a thrilling contest before Edwards' super leap, the early blows were struck by America's Walter Davis and Cuba's

None of the British trio of Edwards, Philips Idowu and Larry Achike could put together a decent jump during the first round, with Edwards looking particularly flat.

Philips Idowu
Idowu was eliminated after the third round
The first surprise was the elimination of Paolo Camossi, the highly rated Italian.

While the Brits struggled to get going, the competition was producing some electric jumping, with Olsson making the first impression with a jump which brought him silver.

And then Edwards produced his unbelievable jump, which put him in the outright lead at 17.92, the longest in the world this year.

Idowu failed to get past the third round after clearly suffering from nerves during his three efforts.

There was also disappointment for Achike, who failed to get going during the final rounds and could not get into the medal positions.


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