Fabrice Lapierre flying to a windy 8.78m leap in Perth (© Getty Images)
On 28 September 2000, a 16yearold Australian school kid Fabrice Lapierre was in the Sydney Olympic stadium, delivering results to the working media. That night, he watched Jai Taurima claim silver in the Long Jump and break the Australian record with a leap of 8.49m.
“Back then I knew I just wanted to one day be like the athletes I was watching. It was just a dream though,” recalled Lapierre.
Ten years on, Taurima’s record is under threat, by Lapierre herself, and it is his target this Thursday evening (10) at the IAAF Diamond League in Rome.
“I can realistically win and a jump beyond Jai Taurima’s Australian record,” Lapierre said from Rome. “Training has been going very well and I’m looking forward to jumping.”
The northern hemisphere season has only just commenced, but already Lapierre has made a major impact, winning the World Indoors, leaping a windy 8.78m and claiming a convincing win in the IAAF Diamond League in Shanghai.
“It (the season) really has only just started, but it’s been a great start to the year and has so far gone to plan,” Lapierre said.
In 2009, Lapierre was on the improve, when in Madrid he won with a windy 8.57m and also raised his legal best to 8.35m.
“Last year started great for me too, but an injury right before the World Championships put a downer on everything but I was still able to place fourth. I realized then that at my best I would hard to beat. Then this year before World Indoors I picked up a hamstring injury but this time I was able to win gold and was not 100%, so that obviously build up my confidence. Then of course jumping 8.78m at the nationals (Perth, AUS, 18 April) also did no harm to my confidence.”
Lapierre’s wind assisted leap of 8.78m, with moderate wind assistance of only 3.1m/s, was the longest leap in the world for nearly 15 years, when in July 1995, Ivan Pedroso leapt 8.95m at altitude in Sestriere.
He appears to be the ‘one to beat’ in the Long Jump and anything looks possible.
“The sky’s the limit,” said Lapierre.
“I won’t put a limit on anything, but obviously this year being ranked number one in the world and winning the Diamond League is achievable, and if I can do that then the Commonwealth Games look good.”
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David Tarbotton for the IAAF
