It’s the last leap for Rutherford
GREG RUTHERFORD called time on his championship career after joking that his four-year-old son could now jump further than him.
The long jump legend returned to the scene of his London 2012 heroics for the Anniversary Games saying only an 8m leap would persuade him to defend his European crown next month.
He left with tears in his eyes and certainty in his heart that he was bowing out at exactly the right time.
“Milo’s attempt today was probably better than mine,” he quipped after his son mimicked him by jumping into the pit in which he had won Olympic gold in happier times.
Rutherford, 31, had finished last, more than a metre behind world and Commonwealth champion Luvo Manyonga.
“It is very much time to be handing over the flame to someone else,” he added.
“I love doing what I do but sadly I can’t keep going.
“Running down the runway on the third attempt my foot felt completely awful. Pain overwhelmed everything else.” Rutherford did not need to see 7.55m flash up on the scoreboard to know that it was all over and he would not be packing for Berlin.
“The Euros are happening, that’s definite,” he said.
“There is not a hope in hell of me getting through three days of jumping.
“By round three I was in so much pain. I am not prepared to go to majors as a tourist, I want to win medals.”
On the eve of the competition Rutherford had predicted he would be “crying more than jumping” and so it proved. “I went through different moments of crying and then pulling myself together,” he said.
“This is my body telling me it’s time to walk away. Nothing not for
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else. My body doesn’t enjoy jumping as much as my mind does.” Rutherford now turns his focus to track cycling and has targeted the national championships in January. “I’d like to see if I have learned enough by then to do that, just for fun,” said one of only five British athletes ever to hold Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth titles simultaneously. “But I need to point out that I am not saying I am going to come into the sport and be dominant, or even win. I might be terrible.” CJ Ujah has pinned his hopes on a blistering relay run earning him individual selection for the European Championships. Last year’s Diamond League champion over RELAY POSITIVE: Sprinter CJ Ujah 100m failed to win an automatic place in the British team by finishing outside the top two at the trials.
And when he pulled out of Saturday’s sprint showdown at these games, he gave the selectors an excuse not to take him to Berlin when they meet today.
But in the nick of time Ujah responded by helping Britain’s sprint relay world champions clock the fastest time anywhere this year, winning in 37.61secs.
“I missed the individual race as I needed a rest but I have faith that I’ll be selected,” said Ujah, who set up Zharnel Hughes, Adam Gemili and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake to complete the job.
“It’s been a bit of a turbulent season for me but I’m the fittest I’ve been and I’m getting sharper so fingers crossed.”
Laura Muir failed in her attempt to break Zola Budd’s long-standing British mile record.
Muir set off too fast and missed out by nearly two seconds with a time of 4:19.28.
Five-time Paralympic sprint champion Hannah Cockroft suffered a shock defeat over 100m, and lost her world record in the process, to fellow Briton Kare Adenegan, who is just 17.