Edwards leaps into history as Jackson slips up

When the Olympics were last held in Australia, in Melbourne in 1956, the winner of the triple jump was Ademar Ferreira da Silva, a Brazilian who moved on to a successful career as a soap-opera actor.

Jonathan Edwards has faced so many trials and tribulations recently that there must have been times when he felt he was living out his own private soap opera. But there was no cliff-hanging finale in last night's closing scenes.

Under the admiring eye of Da Silva, a third-round leap of 17.71 metres - the best in the world this year - blew the opposition out of the water and secured for him the honour of becoming Britain's first Olympic triple-jump champion proper.

Timothy Ahearne had won at the London games in 1908 representing Britain but was so outraged at being forced to compete under the union flag that during the medal ceremony he shimmied up the pole, tore it down in protest and replaced it with the tricolour. He now appears in the record books as Irish.

There was no doubt where Edwards' loyalties lay. Draped in the union flag, he took what must be the slowest lap of honour in history. He took so long, constantly stopping to be photographed by British fans in the crowd, that after 15 minutes an official asked him to hurry up. If he was determined to savour the moment after succeeding on his fourth attempt at Olympic glory then it was perfectly understandable.

At Seoul in 1988, as a 22-year-old, he failed to make the final, being placed 23rd in the qualifying round. Four years later Edwards genuinely felt he could bring home a medal from Barcelona, but once again failed to make the final.

Then came the magnificent summer of 1995 which made his a household name. He won at the world championships in Gothenburg with an astonishing leap of 18.29m, the first man to jump more than 60 feet.

Many accolades followed, including his much-coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. He remained unbeaten until the Olympics in Atlanta, where America's Kenny Harrison leapt 18.09m to snatch the gold medal.

His start to 2000 did not suggest that this would be his year. Indeed, after a poor performance at the Rome Golden League meeting at the end of June, Edwards' confidence was so deflated that he fled to Israel to find sanctuary. But he returned to produce excellent wins in London, Zurich and Leverkusen which put him back on top of the world rankings.

However only days before the opening ceremony, Edwards' preparations were again in turmoil. First, he was involved in a row with Britain's swimmers when he labelled them party-going medal no-hopers in a website column and was forced to apologise. Then his wife's mother, ill for a year with cancer, died after he had arrived in Australia.

It deeply affected the devoutly religious Edwards and he contemplated not travelling down to Sydney. But, with the blessing of his wife Alison, he decided to compete, in a last attempt to take the one prize in the sport that had eluded him.

He succeeded brilliantly. His third-round jump established a marker none of his rivals could get near as Cuba's Yoel Garcia took the silver with 17.47m and Russia's Denis Kapustin the bronze with 17.46m.

Britain's Larry Achike, with 17.29m, was denied third place in the final round as he slipped to fifth, one place ahead of his young team-mate Phillips Idowu, who jumped 17.08m.

"This was a very tough competition," said Edwards, who had jumped further in Atlanta where he leapt 17.88m but only took silver. "I feel very grateful with everything. I don't know what to say - I'm overwhelmed.

"I didn't feel good. I didn't feel fluid. I was praying like mad. I was hanging on a little bit, and I've come through by the skin of my teeth.

"This was my last chance. I knew when I looked at the field I had the talent to win. I owed it to God to win. I feel happy for everyone else."

Four years ago, in Atlanta, Edwards had been in such a state that his wife Alison had tried to persuade him to return home to Newcastle before the final. There were no such dramas this time as his sons Sam, eight, and Nathan, five, with Edwards' mother, father and father-in-law watched the final on television.

However Alison was nervously pacing the streets when he achieved his ambition. "I have never been good at watching Jonathan," she said. "I'm afraid I had to go out for a walk with a friend but I was in contact with the house over the phone. He wanted to get the gold for us so that we would all have something to celebrate because we have all had a difficult time."

A few hundred miles away, at the Cardiff home of Colin Jackson's parents, there were no celebrations. Like Edwards, he was competing in his fourth games; unlike Edwards, Jackson failed to claim the one title he had never won, in the 110m hurdles.

The world champion and world-record holder appeared not to recover from the false start he caused and hit a series of hurdles as he finished only fifth in 13.28sec in a race won convincingly by Cuba's Anier Garcia in 13.00sec. America's Terrence Trammell was second in 13.16sec with his team-mate Mark Crear taking bronze in 13.22sec. The defending champion Allen Johnson finished just 0.01sec outside of the medals in fourth.

Jackson, the most naturally talented hurdler the event has seen, will now retire with only an Olympic silver medal to his name - won in Seoul on his debut in 1988.

"Obviously I'm very disappointed, but when you make mistakes like that you know you are going to run into trouble - especially in a high-class field like that - and I paid the penalty," Jackson said. "There is no sadness. When you see how many championships I won, how could I possibly be sad?"