American triple jump legend Christian Taylor said his time out with a ruptured achilles tendon had allowed him to rediscover his love for jumping just in time for the world championships.
Taylor, a double Olympic champion, suffered the rupture in Ostrava, the Czech Republic, just over a year ago, but is confident he has made a positive rehabilitation on what is one of the worst injuries a jumper could sustain.
“It’s maybe the best thing, or second best thing, that has happened in my career, I’ve really grown so much from this,” said the 31-year-old.
“The joy of track I’ve found again. To rediscover what I’m doing this for is for me the greatest joy.
“Now I get to start over and jump in a sand box and there’s no better job!”
Taylor, who owns the second longest triple jump in history (18.21) behind Jonathan Edwards’s world record of 18.29m set in 1995, is a headline draw for the meet in Montreuil, France, on Thursday.
The four-time world champion said he had viewed the entire Tokyo Summer Olympics last year.
“I watched it and used it as motivation,” Taylor said of the Tokyo Games, adding that he synchronised his training times to simulate “being there with them”.
Meanwhile Olympic sprint champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs has withdrawn from this month’s Diamond League meetings in Rome and Oslo after failing to recover from a muscle injury, Italy’s athletics federation said.
The 27-year-old, who became the first Italian to win Olympic 100 metres gold in Tokyo last year, picked up the injury during his victory in the 100m in Savona, Italy in May and also missed the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene last weekend.
“Today’s investigations have shown that Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs has not fully recovered from the muscle problem diagnosed last week,” the federation said in a statement late yesterday.
Jacobs, who ended his 2021 season early citing exhaustion, said he was hoping to be fit in time for the world championships in July.
“I have to skip the next two races in Rome and Oslo...
“I will continue with physiotherapy and low-regime training in order to better recover for the World Championships in Eugene in July,” he wrote in a social media post,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs set a European record of 9.80 seconds to win the Tokyo 100m final before picking up a second gold medal in the 4x100m relay.