Berlin, Germany – Already the finest long jumper in the world, Irving Saladino took a significant leap forward last weekend with his sensation 8.73m leap at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meeting in Hengelo. Now the World champion from Panama has his eyes set on improving upon his personal best in the ÅF Golden League competition by winning at each of the series six meetings, beginning this Sunday (1 June) in Berlin.

“The goal for this year is to win all six competitions of the ÅF Golden League,” Saladino said.  “In 2006 I only could in five. I lost in France, coming in second there. And this year, my goal is to win all of them, because it’s really good training for the Olympic Games.”

His runner-up finish in Paris in July 2006 was the last time Saladino has lost a competition, collecting 21 consecutive victories since.

“And the strategy I have is to make a really very good first jump,” Saladino said, adding with a smile, “and then afterwards I can just sit and have a little rest.”

That strategy served him well in Hengelo, producing his big leap, which landed him in the no. seven spot all-time, in the first round.

“It was a big surprise for me when I saw the result last weekend,” he said. “I felt strong that day, I felt good, and I felt I could do a good job, and a very good jump, maybe 8.60m or something like that. But when I saw the 8.73m I was really surprised.”

“And in the end it felt easy. It was easy and so I feel that it’s very possible to do an even better job this coming Sunday go even farther.”

He’s not taking his competition lightly. Indeed, Saladino feeds from stiff competition.

“There are really great competitors. And with those competitors I think in the end we could really even try to go for the World record. Because these are guys who can really put pressure on the others.”

“If I feel the pressure, I always go for my maximum capacity, my maximum potential. So that’s part of the strategy behind the really good first jump, so then I could really observe the competition, and see how they’re jumping. And if they jump farther, then I don’t care, because I’m going to try to jump even farther.”

While he has reverence for Mike Powell’s mighty 8.95m World record set in 1991, he firmly believes that its days could be numbered.

“On the right day, in the right atmosphere, then it’s possible to break the World record. There’s only a little missing for me to achieve the World record, so I’m really going to try and break it in every single competition. I want to achieve that record, by improving my technique and consistency. Then I think the World record will come by itself.”

Saladino has reappeared on the circuit as a slightly leaner version of himself, but said that’s just part of his 2008 plan so he could perhaps narrow that “little something”.

“I might look a little bit slimmer” he warned, “but I’m very strong.”

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF