Nathan Douglas may not be the British name preying on world champion Christian Taylor’s mind during his winter training; the 29-year-old has his eyes decisively on the London 2012 podium.
While former world champion and Olympic silver medallist Philips Idowu has become a family name, little is known of Douglas, who in 2007, after the European Indoor Championships, was temporarily ranked second in the world.
After a series of injury-plagued seasons, 2011 was shaping up to be his best yet, until a freak injury on the last day of his pre-season training camp ruled him out of the World Championships and left the UK number two once again watching Idowu nab the limelight.
“When my freak accident occurred I had just started to get myself back into really good shape after a few years of injury problems,” said Douglas.I was hopeful of getting back to the form that I was used to, so for this to be taken away from me with a freak accident was hard to take, but you just have to pull yourself up and get on with it.
“Rehab is always a mixed bag as it is always full of ups and downs, but normally it has been going well. I have to be smart and listen to my ankle and let it dictate how hard I can push and guide the speed of recovery.”
However, Douglas claims his injury misfortunes have only made him hungrier for success this season.“I think my experiences have taught me a lot, and you tend to learn more through negative experiences,” he added. “At the moment my aim is to get this ankle totally right and give myself enough time to get into shape and qualify for 2012.
It’s a bit of a dominoes effect where one goal leads to the next, but ultimately the aim would be to make the Olympic final, then once in the final to fight for an Olympic medal.”Recent years have seen the number of world class triple jumper’s rise radically.
Frenchman Teddy Tamgho took gold and a new indoor world record in his home town at last year’s European Indoor Championships while months later it was USA’s Christian Taylor who stole Idowu’s crown at the World Championships in Daegu.