ATHLETICS: Defying a painful hamstring injury, Fabrice Lapierre rode a surge of adrenaline all the way to a spectacular silver medal in the long jump at the world championships.
The enigmatic Lapierre has battled leg injuries for several years and again felt pain in his hamstring and glutes during the warm-up on Tuesday night.
But rather than backing off, he improved as the competition wore on, moving into second spot with 8.20m in the penultimate round and topping the night off with a big closing effort of 8.24m.
Just as he did to Mitchell Watt three years ago in London, Britain's Greg Rutherford stole some of an Australian jumper's thunder by claiming gold with 8.41m.
The pair are great friends and training partners under the tutelage of US master coach Dan Pfaff.
"I was always secretly thinking I was going to get a medal and I came here and got my goal," said Lapierre.
"I proved to myself that I was back in the shape I was in (in 2010).
"I was a bit worried because in the warm-up my hamstring and my glutes weren't right and I thought `here we go again, I've hurt my hamstring'.
"I knew it was hurt, it was agonising pain and my first jump wasn't that great.
"But a couple of the guys were struggling on the runway and I figured if I could do just one jump, just get one jump and make top eight or whatever.
" ... then a couple of guys got knocked out and I thought `you're just here once, if you're in pain just go for it'.
"My mentality changed and my adrenaline kicked in, the adrenaline took the pain away as much as it could and I was running on pure adrenaline really."
It was in the fourth round, when Lapierre ran through the pit, that he and Pfaff realised he could lift and challenge for a medal.
"That's the one where I was OK," he said.
"I felt `if you can run like that now then you can do this'."
Lapierre's golden year came back in 2010, when he won the world indoor and Commonwealth titles, set his PB of 8.40m and also produced an astonishing wind-assisted leap of 8.78m at the national championships in Perth.
But this result will only confirm the belief of the enigmatic Lapierre that the best may still be yet to come as he sets sail for the Rio Olympics.
Australia has had a long run of near misses in the men's long jump at major championships with Theo Bruce (1948), Gary Honey (1984), Jai Taurima (2000) and Watt all claiming Olympic silver.
Watt also finished second at the 2011 world championships.
Rutherford said Tuesday night's victory was the best of his celebrated career.
"Absolutely it is," he said.
"There have been stresses this year which I cannot explain to you.
"It has been really, really tough at points. To come out here and do that - I'm over the moon."
Jianan Wang of China took the bronze with 8.18m.
But several fancied competitors flopped, none more so than 2015 rankings leader American Jeff Henderson, who could do no better than 7.95m and missed the halfway cut-off.
AAP
