Swedish triple jumper Olsson makes comeback

Jun 13, 2006, 15:48 GMT

Stockholm - Olympic triple jump champion Christian Olsson has made a successful comeback almost two years after his last competition, reports said Tuesday.

The 26-year-old jumped 17.09 metres in his first jump at a competition Monday in Karlskrona, southern Sweden. This places him 12th in the current world results.

He then aborted two attempts before jumping 16.82 metres and rounding off his series with 17.01 metres.

Olsson told reporters he was nervous before the event, but had aimed to jump 16.50 metres to qualify for the European Cup competition in Prague the coming weekend.

The result means that he will qualify for the European championships this August in his native Gothenburg, but Olsson told Swedish radio that he was aware that the result would be insufficient to clinch a medal.

'But after 21 months, a comeback with 17.09 was a great start,' Olsson said.

Olsson, who won the world title in 2003 and Olympic gold in 2004 in Athens, said he would continue training and work on details in his jumping.

Pain in his right foot forced the Swede to undergo four operations.

Gothenburg hosted the 1995 world championships, with Olsson as a teenager selling programmes in the stands and watching British legend Jonathan Edwards better the triple jump world record twice, to 18.16 metres and then 18.29 metres for the gold medal.