Euro Athletics Junior Champs Flash Quote - Men's Long Jump
19th July 2013Elliot Safo – European Junior Long Jump Champion – 7.86m (-0.3m/s)
I’m really happy with that – I came here for the win, and a PB came with that, so I’m really happy.
It was a good competition. For the first three rounds I was in the lead, and then I was overtaken by two centimetres, which pushed me on to jump two centimetres further again.
It was a tough competition – I knew I had a 7.80m in me, but I didn’t know how much further, so to jump 7.86m is pretty good!
I’ve had quite a few run up problems in the past, and my run up wasn’t perfect today. Basically my run up was too short, so I had to chop my stride to actually hit the board. The other guys were all jumping really well, and the Belgian had one round to go after I jumped 7.86m, so I was a little worried that he’d jump further – it was an anxious wait.
It [the gold medal] feels so good. This was my main aim for the season, so to actually come away with the win makes me so happy, shocked, but happy.