Greg Rutherford

Greg Rutherford
MBE

Rutherford at the victory parade for the 2012 Summer Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Gregory James Rutherford
Born	(1986-11-17) 17 November 1986 Milton Keynes, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight	87 kg (192 lb)
Sport
Country	England United Kingdom
Club	Marshall Milton Keynes Athletics Club
Turned pro	2005
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	Long Jump 8.35 m (Chula Vista 2012) 100m 10.26 (Gateshead 2010)[1]
Medal record Men’s athletics Competitor for  Great Britain Olympic Games Gold 2012 London Long jump European Championships Silver 2006 Gothenburg Long jump Competitor for  England Commonwealth Games Silver 2010 Delhi Long Jump
Updated on 4 August 2012.

Gregory James Rutherford, MBE (born 17 November 1986)^[2][3] is an English athlete who specialises in the long jump and also competes as a sprinter. He is the 2012 Olympic Champion, 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist and 2006 European Championship silver medallist in the long jump. With Chris Tomlinson, he is the joint British record holder for this event.

Early life

Rutherford grew up in Bletchley, Milton Keynes^[4] where he attended Two Mile Ash Primary School^[5] and went on to Denbigh School.^[6] He is the great-grandson of footballer Jock Rutherford, who won three Football League First Division titles with Newcastle United and 11 England caps, and is also the oldest player ever to have played for Arsenal;^[7] his grandfather also played for Arsenal.^[8] Rutherford played several sports as a youth including football, rugby and badminton.^[9] He had trials with Premiership football club Aston Villa as a teenager before deciding to pursue a career in athletics.^[10]

Career

2005–2007

Rutherford became the youngest ever winner of the long jump event at the AAA Championships in 2005, aged 18.^[9] He also won the European Junior Championships that year, setting a British junior record of 8.14 m.^[10]

Rutherford was selected to represent England at the 2006 Commonwealth Games,^[10] where he finished 8th.^[3] He won the AAA championships again that year with a jump of 8.26 m.^[11] On 8 August 2006, he won the silver medal in the long jump at the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg with a jump of 8.13 m.^[12]

Rutherford missed much of the 2007 season due to a succession of injury problems, including an ankle injury for which he had surgery in February of that year.^[13] He competed at the 2007 World Championships but did not reach the final, finishing 21st in the qualifying round.^[14]

2008–2011

Rutherford won the AAA title on 12 July 2008, reaching the Olympic qualifying distance of 8.20m.^[15] He also won the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace two weeks later with a distance of 8.16 m.^[16] At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing Rutherford qualified for the final in third place with a distance of 8.16 m. In the final, he had two no-jumps in the first two rounds, and recorded a distance of 7.84 m in the third round. This was not enough to place him in the top 8 who would continue to the final three rounds, and he finished in 10th place.^[17]

Rutherford competing in the 100 m at the Arena Games in Hilversum, 2010

Rutherford set a British record of 8.30 m on 20 August 2009 in the qualifying round of the World Athletics Championships in Berlin,^[18] improving the previous record held by Chris Tomlinson by 1 cm.^[19] He was unable to match this performance in the final of the event, finishing fifth with a jump of 8.17 m.^[20]

Rutherford did not compete at the 2010 European Championships due to a foot injury.^[21] On 18 September he set a personal best for the 100 m of 10.26 seconds in the invitational event at the Great North City Games.^[1][22] At the 2010 Commonwealth Games, he won the silver medal with a jump of 8.22 m.^[21]

Rutherford extended his personal best in the long jump to 8.32 m at the Eugene Diamond League meeting on 4 June 2011, although it was not recognised as a British record as it was wind assisted.^[23] In July 2011 Chris Tomlinson broke Rutherford's British record with a jump of 8.35 m in Paris.^[24] At the 2011 World Championships, Rutherford injured a hamstring during the qualifying round and did not reach the final.^[19]

After the 2011 season, Rutherford worked on his take-off technique with his coach Dan Pfaff, adopting a technique based on that of Carl Lewis of making the penultimate step of the approach a lateral step outwards.^[25]

2012

Rutherford after winning the long jump at the 2012 Olympics

Rutherford equalled Tomlinson's British record on 3 May 2012 with a jump of 8.35 m at the OTC Pre-Olympic Series II event in Chula Vista, California.^[26] It was also the longest jump of 2012 at the time (later equalled by Sergey Morgunov on 20 June).^[27]

Pair of post boxes in Milton Keynes painted gold in honour of Rutherford

At the 2012 Olympics in London, Rutherford reached the final with a jump of 8.08 m, qualifying in fourth place.^[28] In the final, he took the lead in the second round with a jump of 8.21 m, improving to 8.31 m in the fourth round which proved to be the winning jump.^[29] Rutherford became the second British man to win Olympic gold in the long jump^[30] and the first to do so since Lynn Davies in 1964.^[6] Although his winning distance of 8.31 m was the shortest since 1972,^[29] it was 15 cm ahead of silver medallist Mitchell Watt^[31] and his second-best jump of 8.21 m would also have been enough to win the gold.^[32] Rutherford's gold was one of three won by British track and field athletes on the evening of 4 August 2012 (the others were won by Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon and Mo Farah in the men's 10,000 m); this was the first time that three gold medals had been won by British athletes in the same Olympic athletics session.^[33]

Following his gold medal Rutherford (as with the other British 2012 Olympic champions) was featured on a Royal Mail postage stamp, and two post boxes in Milton Keynes were painted gold in his honour.^[34]

2013

Rutherford sustained a hamstring injury during the Paris Diamond League meeting on 6 July, which forced him to withdraw midway through the competition.^[35] British Athletics delayed announcing their selection for the men's long jump at the World Championships due to the injury, but on 30 July Rutherford's selection was confirmed after he passed fitness tests.^[36] At the championships Rutherford failed to reach the final, finishing 14th in the qualifying round on 14 August with a jump of 7.87 m.^[37]

Media appearances

In 2013, he appeared in an episode of the ITV2 comedy panel show Fake Reaction.

On 28 December 2013, Rutherford took on ITV's The Cube in a Celebrity special. He won £20,000 to share between Battersea Dogs and Cats Home and Hula Animal Rescue.

It was confirmed on 1 January 2014, that Rutherford was to participate in The Great Sport Relief Bake Off, a charity spin-off from the main BBC show.^[38] His episode was aired on 14 January 2014.

Honours

Rutherford was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to athletics.^[2] In July 2013 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science by the University of Bedfordshire.^[39]

Personal life

Rutherford lives in Woburn Sands, a small town on the outskirts of Milton Keynes.^[40][41]

He is a fan of Manchester United.^[25] Rutherford is an Athlete Ambassador for the global sport for development charity Right To Play

Statistics

Personal bests

Competition record

See also

• 2012 Olympics gold post boxes in the United Kingdom

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Greg Rutherford.

• Official website
• Greg Rutherford profile at IAAF