Booked with a jump and sealed with a flip, Liam Adcock’s chase was complete. From six years without a personal best to a world title contender, the long jumper’s time to convert his form into a global medal arrives this weekend in Nanjing, China.
A Paris Olympian with a low profile on the international scene, Adcock has progressed in 2025 to distances that can’t be ignored. A stunning 8.33m (+1.8) leap at the Perth Track Classic saw him climb to fifth on the Australian all-time list, more importantly qualifying for the World Athletics Indoor Championships where he hits the runway ranked third.
With three consecutive personal bests in his Perth series, Adcock has left injury in his wake to declare himself ready to continue Australia’s rich history in the event at the World Indoor Championships – with the nation’s three medals led by Fabrice Lapierre’s gold in 2010.
“I’m pretty confident, training since Perth has been good. I’ve sorted out that issue I had with my back and glute, and I feel like I have a good shot for a medal. I’m secretly thinking I can take the win, so we’ll see,” Adcock says.
“People look at Australian results and don’t put too much emphasis on them. We saw it with Lachie [Kennedy] that nobody is giving him much credit, and I feel a bit the same way. Until you do it in a competition against them, they don’t see you as a threat – so I will bring it.”
Despite his 8.33m leap in Perth, it was a different kind of jump that stole the show as the 28-year-old rolled out his now trademark celebration – an effortless backflip that reveals more about how his background benefits his athletics career.
“I have a lot of experience with gymnastics, trampolining and acrobatics. I have pretty good aerial awareness and proprioception – I know what my body is doing and I know what I’m looking for when I’m jumping,” Adcock said.
“The flip stuff is something that I have done for the last few years, every time I get a PB. It just happened to be in that competition that I did a few of them in a row!”
In some senses, the backflip was put on hold for six years as Adcock failed to build upon his personal best of 7.90m as a 20-year-old, but his persistence would eventually pay off with an 8.15m jump in 2023 as he landed on the World Championships team for Budapest.
“Throughout that period, I got a little burnout and took some time off. Then I had hamstring and ankle injuries which stuck around, plus the pandemic, but I still felt like I could do more with the sport which is why I started,” Adcock says.
“I dropped back a lot of the extra work and focussed on the quality of each session, making sure I was doing each session for a purpose. Each year I thought that if I just got a good training block in that I would be able to pull something out, but I was never able to do that until 2023.”
Formerly coached by the late Gary Bourne before a stint in Sydney under the tutelage of Andrew Murphy, the Brisbane-based athlete credits his variety of experiences and environments as key to his success – forcing him to re-evaluate many of his goals having considered retirement post-Olympics.
“I sat down in November and wrote down a bunch of goals that I wanted to achieve if I was going to keep going and have another crack,” Adcock says.
“Having more fun was one, making World Indoors another, and jumping 8.20m – I have done just about all of them. The last one was starting in the Diamond League, which I hope to do in China pretty soon.”
As for whether he can replicate his career-best leap on the boards of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, Adcock remains optimistic:
“I came out of the pit thinking it was flat, but I just carried the speed through the board well. I feel like if I can pop off it a bit more there is still room to improve, which is nice.”
The World Athletics Indoor Championships will be held in Nanjing, China from March 21-23, with Australian viewers able to tune in live and free via SBS VICELAND.
By Lachlan Moorhouse, Australian Athletics
Posted 19/3/2025
