Rutherford on a roll with sights on ‘Super Saturday II’
Greg Rutherford is hoping to create history again when he attempts to win Olympic long jump gold on the same night that Jessica Ennis-Hill and Mo Farah defend their titles in a repeat of ‘Super Saturday’ at London 2012.
The British trio ensured one of the most memorable British evenings in Olympic history when they all won gold within an hour of each other – and they are all favourites to repeat the feat this Saturday.
“It would be fantastic if it does happen,” said Rutherford. “It would be another momentous occasion in British athletics history. We’ve all worked really hard to get here, I’m in very good shape myself and I believe the other two are in fantastic shape, too. So it’s very, very possible.
“If we can have ‘Super Saturday II’ that would be wonderful. I think I am first one up this time. I was second in London 2012.
“We don’t get to see each other very often because Jess is in Sheffield, Mo is in Oregon and I’m out in Phoenix. But Mo is in the same [Olympic Village] apartment as me and I was treated at the same time as Jess earlier. We’ve known each other for a very long time.”
Despite facing criticism for his winning jump of 8.31 metres in London – the shortest winning distance in 40 years – Rutherford has since added world, European and Commonwealth titles.
Although an 11-month winning streak came to an end in Birmingham in June, he insists he is in shape to break his own British record of 8.51m if required in Rio.
“I have been consistent, and I’ve had a fantastic training block coming into this so there’s no reason why I can’t jump further than I have before,” he said. “Every time I step on that runway I want to do something special. I know I’m in a fantastic position so if conditions play ball there’s no reason why I can’t do it. Confident: Long jumper Greg Rutherford “But equally I have been coined as the world’s best ever bad-conditions jumper. So if we get bad conditions, I’ll happily welcome that, too.” While Rutherford, Ennis-Hill and Farah are Britain’s leading candidates for athletics gold, one of a handful of young hopefuls is 20-year-old sprinter Dina Asher-Smith, who was a volunteer kit-carrier on the night the trio triumphed four years ago. Asher-Smith, who was crowned European 200m champion last month, said she was inspired by the three gold medallists, despite initially feeling disappointed at missing out on the blue-riband event. “I remember getting the timetable and we were all like, ‘Oh man, we didn’t get Usain Bolt’s 100m final’, which seems incredibly awkward now,” she said, looking over at Rutherford and laughing.
“We got the long jump, the end of the heptathlon and Mo’s final as well, so we thought it had the potential to be a great night, but we didn’t know that was the actual one we really wanted to get.
“It was incredible – I really can’t describe the stadium that night. It was a very odd moment because there was a point where Greg, Jess and Mo made the entire stadium so incredibly proud of them.
“I thought it was quite interesting because the people in the crowd weren’t next-door neighbours who knew them, they weren’t people who knew that Jess missed Beijing or people who knew how many times Greg had to get out of bed to go training in the mornings, but they were still crying and still screaming and getting so emotional over these performances, and that so inspired me.”