Henry Frayne can write two pieces of athletic history this week as he aims to qualify for a rare Olympic long jump and triple jump double.
Frayne goes into the selection trials in Melbourne aiming to become the first Australian since 1964 to compete in both events at an Olympics and, in the process, can break the national combined jumps record.
The triple jump specialist even shocked himself when he leapt into contention in the hotly-competitive long jump a fortnight ago with a qualifying distance of 8.27m, the longest jump in the world this year.
He’s one of four athletes at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday vying for the two remaining long jump spots in the team.
A triple jump spot is pretty much all his, but he still needs to improve on his best of 17.09m to clear the qualifying mark of 17.20m.
“It would be great to qualify in both,” Frayne said.
“It would be good for me, good for publicity. I’d certainly like to do both because I’m passionate about both events.
“But whether my body holds up to it, there’s a lot of things that come into it when you make these decisions.”
While the 21-year-old is aware of the significance of the feat, he’s also conscious of the dangers of taking on too much.
“It’s only going to be history making if I do it successfully,” he said.
“If you fail miserably at both events because you tried to focus on two, that’s not going to impress anybody.
“Doing well at one is still impressive – obviously doing well at both is more impressive. If it’s possible to do both, I’ll do it.”
Five Australians qualified for the double before World War II, but only Ian Tomlinson has done so post-war, at the 1960 Rome Games and four years later in Tokyo.
And if Frayne can find an extra two centimetres this weekend, he can also eclipse Ken Lorraway’s long-standing record as Australia’s greatest all-round horizontal jumper.
Lorraway’s 20-year-old Australian triple jump record of 17.46m, combined with his long jump best of 7.91m, gives him a one centimetre edge on Frayne.
“I’ll certainly be hoping to push those extra centimetres in Melbourne,” Frayne said. “It does mean a lot to me.”
With world championship long jump silver medallist Mitchell Watt already selected for London, Frayne, world indoor champion Fabrice Lapierre, Chris Noffke and Robbie Crowther will compete for the remaining two places in the team.
Lapierre has a best of 8.40m and, while Noffke jumped 8.33m in 2010, he’s in danger of missing the Games after spending most of last year off the track and has not recorded a jump yet this season.
