14.10.2009

Watt's next for Mitchell?

World championships bronze medallist Mitchell Watt takes centre stage as The Runner's Tribe turns the spotlight on Australia's latest long jump sensation.

How did Australia come to have two brilliant long jumpers, along with some promising juniors? What's the reasoning behind it?
I think Fabrice (Lapierre) and I just happened to have our breakthrough year in the same season as each other. Before nationals in March neither of us had jumped further than 8.20m and now we have both jumped 8.35m+. We definitely have a good pool of jumpers in Australia and I’m sure in the seasons to come we will have more jumpers pushing the best guys in the world.

This was your first European season, how did you find it?
I didn’t really know what to expect when I left Australia; I’d never really been away from home or lived by myself, or competed outside of Australia. I think the fact that I was jumping well made the transition more comfortable and put me in a good mood a lot of the time. I jumped 8.15m in my first competition in France, which was only two centimetres away from my PB at the time, and things generally kept improving. I also had a lot of great friends in Germany, I was living in a house with (Jeremy) Roff and (Lachlan) Renshaw so it was a lot of fun, even though I copped a lot of flack for not running 20km a day! They taught me a lot about middle distance running and ate a lot of Ben and Jerry’s.

What do you take from it for next year?
The main thing I will take from this year is obviously the belief that I can jump big distances and compete / beat the top jumpers in the world. I also learnt a lot outside of athletics which will make next year easier – what it’s like to be on a plane three to four times a week, having to change training sessions because you can’t get to the track, not being able to eat exactly what you want - things like this will make Europe next year a touch smoother.

What was the Berlin experience like?
At first it was really weird being in Berlin. My coach (Gary Bourne) and I had been planning it since 2008, well before I had even jumped a qualifier or was named on the team. So to be in Berlin for the world championships was a weird feeling after all the hard work and planning that had gone into being there.

Apart from that, everything went how we had hoped; I qualified for the final with my first jump in the qualifying round, and in the final I had a really good jump in the first round (8.28m), which really took the pressure off.
I was very nervous by Round 2 for probably the first time in my career, because I knew that my Round 1 jump would be a possibility for a medal, which it was.

Being out on the track there was amazing, especially in the final. Usain Bolt set his 200m world record, Steve (Hooker) won, and Dani (Samuels) had her medal presentation on during my competition, so it really was a magical night in the stadium. It was quite weird because I didn’t know Steve had won gold until I saw him doing a victory lap as I was literally standing on the podium. It was really cool.

You weren't even a full time long jumper until recently, how quickly has this gone for you?
It’s all happened pretty quickly to be honest. At the start of this year I was still studying my law degree full time, and working part time. I decided to defer once I was selected for Berlin so I could go to Europe and do the competitions that my coach / manager had planned for me. I guess that’s what’s good about track and field, being a full time athlete doesn’t consume your whole life or not for me, anyway. I train three hours a day, six days a week. This might seem a lot to some people, but it still gives me the time I need to do what I want outside of training.

What kind of improvement curve can we hope to see in the next year or two from you, given your rapid rise?
I wish I knew! Realistically I wasn’t expecting to jump 8.43m this year, so who knows what is going to happen in the seasons to come. My coach and I know that I can still improve aspects of my training, especially my technique. I will continue to train hard and compete in some quality competitions next year, both in Australia and overseas, so hopefully with some good competition and good training I can keep jumping far.

What's your relationship with Fabrice like? Do you feel differently when he beats you than when someone else does?
Fabrice and I get along really well. We competed together a fair bit this year - Rome, London, Monaco, Madrid – and then Berlin. It’s good having him out on the track, we are both pretty relaxed so it’s good to have a chat in between jumps. He’s a bit more experienced than me, and a really good jumper, so the more we can compete together the better.

I don’t feel too different when he beats me – it doesn’t matter where we’re jumping he’s always one to watch out for.

What's the plan for next year?
Next year will be a pretty big year. I plan on competing at world indoors in March, nationals in April, and then the new Diamond League stretches from May to September, followed by Commonwealth Games in October. It is a pretty massive season, so it will be a huge challenge and take a lot of planning and support, but something I am definitely looking forward to. I have a few months of base to look forward to before then!

With thanks to The Runner's Tribe