GREG’S LONG GOODBYE
Rutherford bows out saying: My son could jump fur ther
GREG RUTHERFORD called time on his championship career after joking that his four-year-old son could jump further than him. The long-jump legend returned to the scene of his London 2012 heroics insisting that only an eight-metre leap would persuade him to defend his European crown next month. He left with tears in his eyes, knowing 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.
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.” He 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 not happening, that’s for 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 medals.”
On the eve of competition, Rutherford had predicted he would be “crying more than jumping” and so it proved. He said: “This is my body telling me it’s time to walk away. Nothing else. My body doesn’t enjoy jumping as much as my mind.”
Rutherford now turns his focus to track cycling – and 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 at once.
“But I must point out that I am not saying I am going to come into the sport and be dominant. I might be terrible.”
FIVE-TIME paralympic sprint champion Hannah Cockroft suffered 100m defeat, and lost her world record, to Kare Adenegan.