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Britain's Edwards wins triple jump
SYDNEY (Reuters) -- If Jonathan Edwards wasn't such a believer in God he might have thought he'd been to hell and back since his glorious summer of 1995. And while the Briton's Olympic triple jump gold medal on Monday cannot compensate for some of the personal heartaches he has suffered it has come as a blessed relief after so many near misses. Five years ago the Briton took his event to new levels with a series of monster jumps. Most spectacular were the first two of the Gothenburg world championships when he flew 18.16 and then 18.29 meters within 20 minutes, becoming the first man to legally clear the 18-meter mark. He produced the four longest jumps in history in that summer and they remain unchallenged. Victory after victory followed until the 1996 Olympics when he was beaten to gold by American Kenny Harrison. The silver medal was considered a disaster by an expectant British public and his apparently blase acceptance of it was difficult for the fans to comprehend. Then came the injuries and operations and a subsequent loss of form. Silver and bronze in the 1997 and 1999 world championships with jumps well below his best followed and in between he missed the Commonwealth Games to undergo surgery. This year he traveled to Israel on a voyage of self-discovery, so missing a major meet at his local Gateshead stadium in northern England and leaving his fans confused and disappointed. At the same time Edwards' mother-in-law was seriously ill with cancer and subsequently died, leaving him more phlegmatic than ever about the difference between first and second in a jumping competition. "I desperately wanted to win today and felt it would be a fitting climax to my career, not that I'm retiring just yet," he said. "But in another sense I had a greater awareness than ever before of God's love for me and that the things that are most important in my life will stay the same whatever I did in competition." Edwards won with a third round jump of 17.17 meters, his best of the season, but said it still didn't feel good. "It didn't feel fluid and it was really tough out there," he said. "It's difficult when you want to perform as well as you know you can and I felt a lot of pressure." The 34-year-old physics graduate agreed he had suffered by the standards he set five years ago. "It all seemed so wonderfully easy that whole season," he said. "I stepped on the track and almost jumped 18 meters at will. Perhaps I didn't appreciate what was happening as competition after competition rolled by and all the victories and awards came in. Trying to live up to that was difficult. "The challenge is to jump in the way you know you can -- but when my best is so far that makes it tough. "But with all the disappointments of the last few years, particularly with my wife's mum being very ill and eventually dying, I knew that my faith and those people and things I care about will remain. "When I did win it I was just overwhelmed. I was on the point of crying on a number of occasions and had to choke back the tears. "Here I was, after everything that has happened, in this amazing arena and I was the champion. It was almost too much."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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