ATHLETICS: Douglas misses out as Idowu takes gold (From Oxford Mail)

ATHLETICS: Douglas misses out as Idowu takes gold

11:09pm Thursday 29th July 2010 in

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PHILLIPS Idowu last night added European triple jump gold to his ever-increasing medal collection with a superb performance in Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium, writes STUART WEIR However, Oxford’s Nathan Douglas had a night to forget, failing to qualify for the final.

Idowu set a personal best of 17.81m to beat Romania’s Marian Oprea and France’s Teddy Tamgho to the title.

The 31-year-old now holds the World, European and Commonwealth titles, with Portugal’s Nelson Evora only denying him the 2008 Olympic title in Beijing by five centimetres.

Idowu led from start to finish with jumps of 17.46m, 17.47m and 17.40m followed by 17.81m in the fourth round, ecl-ipsing his previous personal best of 17.73m set in winning the world title in Berlin last year.

But for Douglas, it was a competition he will look back on with mixed emotions.

The Oxford City star started with a no jump, followed by leaps of 16.48m and 15.53m.

Ironically, the 16.80m he produced in Tuesday’s qualifying would have been enough to make the cut and get him into the top eight who had three additional jumps.

“I am massively disappointed,” he said afterwards.

“I knew that in the final I was going to have to do something bigger than I had done in qualifying and I knew I had to gamble. “In the first jump, I put more into it and the speed seemed to catch me out and I couldn’t control anything.

“For the second one, I decided to go back to a nice comfortable speed like in qualifying to do enough to get in the top eight and I didn’t touch the board.

“When I came to my last jump I had no choice but to go for it and I just didn’t get things together.”

The one positive that Douglas could take was fighting back from injury to get to Barcelona.

“This shows exactly where I am,” he added.

“Three weeks before the UK trials it looked as if I wasn’t going to have a season so I have done well to get here.

“But for me that is never going to be enough. When I get to a championship, whatever shape I am in, I want a medal. So I am disappointed.”

Idowu was naturally delighted, saying: “There’s now one more medal in my career I need to win and thats in a couple of years’ time.

“I always work hard, and by the grace of God I have come out as a gold medallist. It’s amazing.”

Elsewhere, Britain’s Martyn Bernard won a bronze medal in the high jump.