| I felt I was flying Freakish Fabrice jumps 29cm past national record |
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By SCOTT GULLAN Perth The Herald Sun April 19, 2010 A "CRAZY" jump has landed Fabrice Lapierre in the record books, with only five men having jumped further than the Australian champion did yesterday. Lapierre produced a leap of 8.78m -- just 17cm off Mike Powell's world record and 29cm past Jai Taurima's national record -- on his final attempt at the Commonwealth Games selection trials at the Western Australian Athletics Stadium. But the extraordinary jump won't be recognised as a personal best or national record because of a strong tailwind measured at 3.1m a second (the limit for records is 2.0m/s). However, Lapierre rockets up the list of biggest jumps under any conditions. The 26-year-old US-based jumper now sits in rarefied air behind Powell, Olympic record-holder Bob Beamon, Carl Lewis, Soviet athlete Robert Emmiyan and Cuban's Ivan Pedroso. "It's always been there," Lapierre said. "People don't understand that one day I'm going to jump even more exceptional than that. It's only a matter of time until I do something crazy and everyone is going to take notice." Lapierre, who won the world indoor title with a jump of 8.17m in Doha, Qatar, last month, was under pressure coming into the final round, with Queensland's Chris Noffke leading with a personal best 8.33m. "I didn't want to lose out here, being the world champ," Lapierre said. "He put the pressure on me and I love the pressure, so I just put it together on the last jump and it was crazy. It was incredible. "I knew it was big, but I didn't know how big until I went and looked at the tape and then it was like, `Oh my God, 8.78m'. That's only 17cm from the world record and I couldn't believe it. "I couldn't have cared if the wind was 10m per second wind, that jump was incredible." Lapierre said he was certain he would break Taurima's record of 8.49m this year. "I know I can do it, wind or no wind. I'm going to break 8.50m this year, no matter what," he said. "It's just going to be a matter of time. "I wasn't even feeling good today. My groin has been pretty sore. I wasn't taking it easy but I didn't want to push too hard. But when Chris jumped 8.33, I thought, `Well, I can't lose this so I'd better get one out there'. "It just felt like a normal big jump for me. It just felt natural, nothing special. But it felt like I was flying, I guess. It felt so easy like I was floating through the air, which was kind of cool." Australia would seem to have a mortgage on the long jump at October's Commonwealth Games in Delhi given the performances of Lapierre and Noffke yesterday and the fact 2009 world championships bronze medallist Mitchell Watt was absent from the trials because of injury. In the pole vault, Olympic champion Steve Hooker didn't get close to the $100,000 bonus on off to break the world record, bombing out at 6.01m after also failing twice at 5.95m. He still won the national title by 75cm with a first-time clearance at 5.80m. "I was 36cm off the world record," Hooker said. "That's how far away I was. I am not thinking about it all that much at the moment." Fellow world champion Dani Samuels was pleased with her first visit to Perth, winning her sixth discus national title with a throw of 63.61m. Jarrod Bannister continued his comeback from injury by winning the javelin with a heave of 83.17m, while Scott Martin took the shot put after sending it 19.83m on his first attempt. |