Long jumping Down Under part two: Mitchell Watt

In the second of our two-part series focusing on long jumping Down Under, spikesmag.com chats with Berlin hopeful -- and student -- Mitchell Watt...

University Of Queensland undergraduate Mitchell Watt jumped 8.43m in Greece last month. It took him to fifth place in the long jump world rankings and only 0.06 away from Australia's 8.49m long jump record held for 2000 Sydney Olympic medallist Jai Taurima.

You would forgive him for expecting a touch of press coverage but he’s slightly shocked when spikesmag.com asks him for a quick chat in the lobby of a London hotel two days before the Aviva London Grand Prix.

"How do you know who I am?" he asks, making it clear that his feet are still on the ground despite his huge improvement in 2009. And when we ask about his expectations for the World Championships in Berlin the 21-year-old refuses to let his achievements go to his head. "Just because I’ve gone up the rankings it doesn’t change my goal for Berlin. I want to finish in the top eight," he says. "But I know that if I can jump a new PB then I could be in the mix for a medal or even beat Jai's [Australian/Oceanic] record."

The third year Law and Commerce student has been winning long jump competitions since high school but took a break in his early teens to play Australian rules football.

"I competed in state and national titles until I was about 13," he explains. "In my last year I won the long jump, 100m and triple jump nationals. Then I started playing Aussie rules, which I really enjoyed.

"I just didn’t think athletics would take me anywhere. I didn’t think I could live off of it," he says. "But while I was at university I saw my friend from under 13s. He told me how he’d been to Europe and made a bit of cash. He said it was about time I went back to athletics."

And that’s exactly what the sporting all-rounder did.

"Training was tough at first, I hadn’t done sport for two years so I was 15 kilos heavier than I am now - I was too busy going out drinking and doing all the things that 19-year-olds do," he says.

The Brisbane based athlete puts the transformation into a Berlin medal contender down to a combination of natural talent and his coach, Gary Bourne.

"It’s been 18 months of hard work, solid jumping and improved measurements. He really knows how to prepare athletes for big tournaments, a lot of my progress is down to him," he says of Bourne, who also coached Taurima.

Watt's compatriot, Fabrice Lapierre is also proving helpful in the quest to mix it on the world stage. "It's also great having another Aussie jumper doing well," he says. "Fabrice is pushing the top jumpers in big competitions and he's pushing me, too."

So, with the same coach as Taurima, a PB not far off the national record and some stiff Aussie competition surely the distance to beat must be well within Watt's reach?

"I’d be silly to say it’s not as it’s only 0.06 away now," he says. "Jai was a hero of mine and I remember watching him in Sydney on the TV - it would be a really weird feeling to break 8.49 because I remember seeing him do it and thinking how far it was."