A fired-up Greg Rutherford hit back at his critics after completing the full set of major titles by landing long jump gold at the World Championships in Beijing.
The 28-year-old produced his furthest jump of the year when he needed it most, soaring out to 8.41 metres to add the world crown to his Olympic, European and Commonwealth successes.
The success took Great Britain’s medal tally to three – all gold.
The team rebel, who has caused controversy with his extraordinary criticism of UK Athletics, followed in the footsteps of his fellow ‘Super Saturday’ gold medallists from London 2012, Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill, by triumphing at the Bird’s Nest stadium.
Huge congratulations to Britain’s Greg Rutherford, your new long jump world champion with 8.41m. pic.twitter.com/aiegtnzEWK
— IAAF (@iaaforg) August 25, 2015
Rutherford received no real challenge in a competition littered with fouls, taking the lead from round two and responding to his winning fourth-round attempt by punching the air and roaring with delight. He knew he had done enough.
Silver went to Australia’s Fabrice Lapierre with 8.24m and bronze to China’s Jianan Wang with 8.18m.
Victory for the Briton was the perfect response to the critics who branded his Olympic win a fluke. Four major titles and a British record, all in the space of three years is an achievement hard to put down.
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“I’m Olympic, world, Commonwealth and European champion now and I hope that’s enough for people to accept that I’m a half
decent British athlete,” said Rutherford. “Ultimately you’ve got to answer your critics on the track and I’m very much hoping 8.41m is acceptable for people.”
Rutherford has attracted most headlines for his scathing attack on UKA, saying athletes were scared to speak out against the governing body and that he was prepared to become an “outcast” to highlight their problems and concerns.
He becomes only the fifth British athlete to hold all four major titles at the same time.
“That’s very, very special,” he said.
