{"id":1277,"date":"2017-03-28T08:08:03","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T08:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/eugene-double-olympic-gold-medalist-christian-taylor-leads-triple-jump\/"},"modified":"2017-03-28T08:08:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T08:08:03","slug":"eugene-double-olympic-gold-medalist-christian-taylor-leads-triple-jump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/eugene-double-olympic-gold-medalist-christian-taylor-leads-triple-jump\/","title":{"rendered":"Eugene: Double Olympic Gold Medalist Christian Taylor Leads Triple Jump"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Christian Taylor, still only 26, is a major draw to the sport and the target of every other triple jumper in the world. &nbsp;His amazing collection of awards continues to grow and now includes two Olympic golds, two World Championships golds and five IAAF Diamond League trophies. &nbsp;His latest Olympic title in Rio made him the youngest repeater in the event in more than 100 years, and only Viktor Saneyev can claim more TJ golds with three. Taylor\u2019s five Diamond League trophies is only topped by pole vaulter Renauld Lavillenie\u2019s seven.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor will be seeking a third World Championships gold in London this summer. &nbsp;He already owns the most with two after taking the Beijing &#8217;15 crown with an American record 59-9 (18.21) \u2013 the second-best jump in history behind Jonathan Edwards\u2019 world record of 60-\u00bc (18.29) in 1995.<\/p><\/div>\n<div>His victory in last year\u2019s thrilling Pre Classic gave him a second meet title at 58-3\u00bc (17.76), a Hayward Field record. &nbsp;Only Hall-of-Famer Willie Banks (three) has more Pre Classic wins in this event.<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-version=\"7\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:658px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<div style=\"padding:8px;\">\n<div style=\" background:#F8F8F8; line-height:0; margin-top:40px; padding:50.0% 0; text-align:center; width:100%;\">\n<div style=\" background:url(data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC\/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5\/P8\/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo\/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI\/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf\/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); display:block; height:44px; margin:0 auto -44px; position:relative; top:-22px; width:44px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\" margin:8px 0 0 0; padding:0 4px;\"> <span style=\" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;\"><link https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BJznGtshHqR\/ _blank>Ever wondered what the #DiamondRace leaders get up to the day before a big meet? Yesterday we caught up with @taylored2jump ahead of @weltklassezurich to find out! Head to our Facebook page to watch the full video. . . . #DiamondLeague #DiamondTrophy #ZurichDL #FourYears #FieldNation<\/link><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\">A post shared by IAAF Diamond League (@diamondleagueathletics) on Sep 1, 2016 at 1:21am PDT<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async=\"\" defer=\"\" src=\"\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script> <\/p>\n<div>Will Claye, 25, earned his second Olympic silver in Rio with a lifetime best 58-3\u00bc (17.76), repeating the finish in London four years earlier. &nbsp;In 2012, Claye had earlier taken the bronze medal in the long jump, becoming the first man since 1936 to win Olympic medals in both horizontal jumps. He also owns a major TJ gold, having earned the top podium spot at the 2012 World Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Claye has battled Taylor since they were college freshmen in 2009, originally at different schools until Claye transferred from Oklahoma to Florida as the horizontal jumps world took a Gator flavoring in 2011. &nbsp;They finished 1-2 in the World Championships in Daegu, and every Olympics or outdoor Worlds has seen both on the podium except 2013 (Taylor was only 4th). &nbsp;While Taylor has the upper hand in medals (4-1 in golds), Claye owns a career 19-17 advantage in head-to-head competition and, after winning the first matchup, has never been behind, only letting Taylor get even three times (most recently in 2011).<\/p><\/div>\n<div>Their most epic duel may have been in last year\u2019s Pre Classic, when Claye was the defending champion. &nbsp;Each improved on almost every attempt, and Claye\u2019s last-round best of 57-7\u00bd (17.56) was overtaken by Taylor\u2019s 58-3\u00bc (17.76), breaking the Hayward Field record set by Claye at the 2014 Pre Classic. &nbsp;Claye obviously loves jumping in Eugene, the site of 4 of his 9 farthest jumps ever.<\/div>\n<div>China\u2019s Bin Dong, 28, is the reigning World Indoor champion but saved his &nbsp;longest performance for Rio, where he claimed Olympic bronze at 57-8\u00bc (17.58), just a centimeter away from the Asian record 57-8\u00bd set by Li Yanxi, a previous holder of the Pre Classic meet record. &nbsp;His two medals are the only ones at the world level for China in this event.<\/div>\n<div>Max Hess of Germany struck gold as a 19-year-old at last year\u2019s European Championships in Amsterdam. &nbsp;He had already earned silver medals on the world stage twice in Oregon \u2013 first at Hayward Field in the 2014 World Junior Championships, then last year at Portland in the World Indoor Championships. &nbsp;Now 20, he is this year\u2019s early world leader at 57-5\u00be (17.52).<\/div>\n<div>Troy Doris is a dual American citizen who chose to represent Guyana in his first international competition \u2013 the Olympics in Rio. &nbsp;The former 4-time All-American while at Iowa turned in the four best performances of his career last year, improving more than a foot to 56-4\u00bd (17.18) and finished 7th in the Olympics.<\/div>\n<div>Alexis Copello of Cuba is the oldest in the field at 31 and owns the most appearances in the Top 10 world rankings by T&amp;FN \u2013 seven in the last eight years, topped by a No. 2 in 2010. &nbsp;A bronze medalist in the 2009 World Championships, he was 4th in last year\u2019s Pre Classic.<\/div>\n<div>New French sensation Melvin Raffin is the youngest in the field at 18. He set an indoor World Junior record of 56-5\u00bc (17.20) in the qualifying round of this month\u2019s European Indoor Championships. &nbsp;He was bronze medalist at last summer\u2019s World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland.<\/div>\n<div>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td colspan=\"2\"><b>Men\u2019s Triple Jump<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Personal Best<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Christian Taylor<\/td>\n<td>USA<\/td>\n<td>18.21m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Will Claye<\/td>\n<td>USA<\/td>\n<td>17.76m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Alexis Copello<\/td>\n<td>Cuba<\/td>\n<td>17.68m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Bin Dong<\/td>\n<td>China<\/td>\n<td>17.58m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Max Hess<\/td>\n<td>Germany<\/td>\n<td>17.52m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Melvin Raffin<\/td>\n<td>France<\/td>\n<td>17.20m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Troy Doris<\/td>\n<td>Guyana<\/td>\n<td>17.18m<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The two best triple jumpers in the world\u2014Americans Christian Taylor and Will Claye\u2014will go...","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"city":[],"class_list":["post-1277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1277"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondleague.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=1277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}