| Veteran coach predicts Lapierre will break nine-metre barrier |
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ATHLETICS By DANIEL LEWIS Sydney Morning Herald June 12, 2010 FRED O'CONNOR has been coaching long jump since 1946 and believes his protege, Fabrice Lapierre, will eventually go where no man has gone before - beyond nine metres. The 86-year-old is also confident that Lapierre will claim the long jump gold for Australia at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in October. Lapierre, 26, was again on the podium this week in the second of seven long jump competitions in the new international athletics competition, the Diamond League. His jump of 8.11m earned him third place at the Rome meeting, with 2004 Olympic and three-time world champion Dwight Phillips of the United States first with 8.42m. Lapierre won the first Diamond League meeting, in Shanghai last month, with a leap of 8.3m. He won the world indoor long jump championships in March, but it was his astonishing wind-assisted leap of 8.78m the following month at the Australian national championships that grabbed headlines. It was the sixth best long jump in history and not that far from the 8.95m world long jump record set by American star Mike Powell 19 years ago. O'Connor believes the nine-metre mark is realistic for Lapierre because history's greatest long jumpers such as Powell, Carl Lewis and Bob Beamon were in their 30s when they did their best jumping. "He's still just developing," O'Connor said of Lapierre. "He's got the ability to use his power-weight ratio, because he's not a big fella, and he's a very fast runner and ... he's pretty dedicated. "He likes the sport he's in and he's enjoying what he's doing and that keeps him motivated. He likes to travel and he likes to meet people. I've seen him grow into a very fine man from a little boy who wouldn't say boo to a goose. I'm very proud indeed." O'Connor started coaching Lapierre when he was at primary school and continued through his six years at Sydney's Westfields Sports High School, where O'Connor continues to coach long jump, triple jump and high jump. These days Lapierre does most of his training at the prestigious Texas A&M University in the US, but when he comes home he still seeks out O'Connor for advice. Another Westfields student being coached by O'Connor, 16-year-old Kurt Jenner, is off to the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August. Jenner has jumped a wind-assisted 7.47m and is rated one of the top competitors for his age in the world. As a sportsman, O'Connor is no slouch himself, holding several masters records in athletics. He recently had a hip replacement but hopes to eventually run again so he can tackle the 60m and 100m sprints at the next World Masters Games in Italy in 2013. Lapierre's next Diamond League action will be on July 3 in the US in Eugene, Oregon. Round five of the 14-meeting Diamond League tour will be held in New York this weekend and features Australia's Olympic gold medallist Steve Hooker in the pole vault and Olympic silver medallist Sally Pearson (nee McLellan) in the 100m hurdles. |