Posted: February 11, 2005

Athletics: Long Jumpers Take Center Stage In Fayetteville Tonight

By Bob Ramsak, Track Profile

(c) 2004 Track Profile all rights reserved TrackProfile.com

With Olympic silver medallist John Moffitt and 2004 World Indoor champion Savante Stringfellow topping the bill, the long will be taking center stage at tonight's Powered by Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It will be Stringfellow's second competition since an injury late last spring put an end to his Olympic bid, while Moffitt competes for the first time since his 8.47 leap in Athens, an effort that added 20 centimeters to his previous best. The field also includes Melvin Lister, last year's U.S. Olympic Trials triple jump winner, two-time Olympian Walter Davis, and 2002 national indoor champion Miguel Pate. The only prominent name missing from the Fayetteville startlist is that of Olympic and world champion Dwight Phillips who will not be competing in the long jump this indoor season, opting for a quartet of short sprint races instead.

With his Superman tatoos and t-shirts, Stringfellow likes to put on a show, and he likes to talk the talk. A few days prior to his win at the World Indoor Championships last year, Stringfellow was widely quoted as saying that the Budapest competition would amount to "the easiest $40,000 I ever made." After winning what would be the deepest competition ever indoors with a solid 8.40 third round effort, the affable 26-year-old had an admission to make.

"I lied," he said, bursting out in laughter. "It was probably one of the hardest competitions I've ever been to. At any moment I knew that James [Beckford, runner-up with an 8.31m leap] or any of the other guys could pass my jump. I was nervous the entire competition."

His win set up what could have been a strong duel with Phillips, who in 2003 followed his world indoor win in Birmingham, GBR with a win at the world outdoor championships in Paris. But that particular battle never came to pass after an achilles tendon rupture ended his season at a meet in Carson, California.

"The injury was the worst thing that could have happened during the worst year," Stringfellow said. "I was having an unbelievable season. I started with a win at Tyson, then won world indoor. Then we got to Home Depot, and with a snap it all ended." Unable to compete, Stringfellow pursued a second career in real estate and he and his wife decided to have another child.

Stringfellow admitted that he didn't watch the Olympic competition where Phillips and Moffitt claimed the gold and silver. It was the 19th time Americans captured two podium spots at an Olympic Games.

"I watched the Trials, and that was enough. I watched the Trials and watched people not jump very far, and I knew I should have been there. I felt like they were doing something that was mine, and they took it away from me. It was a couple of days until I found out who won the Olympics."

After taking a few months off after his breakout performance in Athens, Moffitt is eager to get back to competition, particularly on the same track where he won last year's NCAA indoor title with a leap of 8.17m (26-9.75).

"I just want to go out there compete, have fun and show those guys I can jump. I'm just going to go out and compete to the best of my ability."

Stringfellow opened his season with a lackluster 7.80m (25-7.25) effort in Stuttgart, Germany on Jan. 31. He readily admits that there's nothing instantaneous about a comeback from injury.

"I never had an injury, and one thing I'm learning, you can be physically ready, but I'm not as sharp as I was at this time last year. I'm using indoor to get back the precision, the sharpness, and hopefully by the time outdoors rolls around, I'll be 100 percent."

Stringfellow said there's no use looking back at might might have been. He's more concerned with looking ahead.

"I think everything is for a reason. I looked at it like I'm about to do great things. Maybe this is a sign to sit back and look from the outside, looking in, and when I'm back into it I'm more hungry and focused. I can appreciate more what I did, and understand my place in it."

"The long jump was boring last year," Stringfellow continued, "and nothing about me is boring, so I'm back to spice things up. You got the same results every time - the same person was winning every time. I'm going to provide some excitement, win lose or draw."

For his part, Moffitt intends to be part of that spciy blend as well.

"It should be a real great competition, with all those guys out there. My biggest competition is myself. The other guys are great jumpers, but I look at myself as a great jumper, too."

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