When Edwards arrived at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, no one ever jumped more than 18 meters in a ‘legal’ wind.
Within the first two rounds of the competition, they managed it twice.
He stayed beyond the board measuring with his opening-round jump of 18.16 meters and then added another 13 cm in a record of about 13 cm after 20 minutes in one of the biggest performances of British athletics.
He was the form athlete of the event that year, who reached Sweden after beating the previous point of American Willy Banks by one centimeter and reached Sweden after jumping 17.98 and also recorded the longest jump in the history of 18.43 meters with a wind-help.
He has always described himself as a runner, rather than a jumper, comparing his contact with the ground through the hop-step-jump stages was lighter than many other athletes to skim water for a pebble and also on 71 kg.
He had changed his technique in that season, adopting a double arm action instead of an alternative hand movement – he said that he made him “so well balanced” through all his stages.
But still he was away from confidence, admitting that he had bought sunglasses at Gothenburg Airport, when he was getting hot, his rivals were “not afraid”.
What his rivals saw was very different.
Jerome Romain, who won a bronze medal in Gothenburg, said, “In our training sessions, we studied Edwards Video Day, Day Out,”. “It was just remarkable to what he did.”
Silver medalist Brian Velman believes Edward set a record as “he was the most skilled triple jumper”.
