Having thrown a mighty 21.92m to break Geoff Capes’ 23-year-old British record in the American collegiate championships in June, the 20.07m Myerscough required to claim the 12th and final qualifying place was still well within his compass. Instead, the early-morning round proved to be his formal downfall. At 8.30am local time, with just a handful of aficionados dotted around the 71,000-seater arena, the pride of Blackpool and Fylde Athletics Club failed to summon sufficient power to make the cut for last night’s final.With a first round put of 19.51m and a second effort of 18.71m, the big British hope was lying 16th in the two-group table going into the final round. The qualifying competition ought to have been a formality for Myerscough, the 23-year-old Lancastrian who arrived in Paris ranked second in the world and on a run of form that marked him as potentially the man to beat. The 6ft 10in giant failed to make it to the final, let alone on to the top step of the medal podium.
It could hardly have been a more inauspicious start for the great British challenge in the French capital. In the absence of Paula Radcliffe from the women’s 10,000m final, Carl Myerscough was a golden shot for Britain on the opening day of the World Championships in the Stade de France.

It took an hour and three lame puts for the man they call the Blackpool Tower to crash to earth in northern Paris yesterday. It took two years, 300 workmen and 2.5 million rivets to build the towering dream of Gustave Eiffel by the banks of the Seine. The 23-year-old Swede was the best qualifier yesterday, jumping 17.56m, and the world title seems his for the taking – unless Edwards can muster one final leap of faith, that is.. Given his devout convictions, it seems fitting that he should be passing on the baton of world leader in his event to a Christian.Christian Olsson was a programme seller in Gothenburg’s Ullevi Stadium when Edwards set his definitive world record in the 1995 World Championships.

“I think it was a sign that this was the time to stop.” Whether he stops with a victory remains to be seen Edwards has yet to record a victory in his farewell season. And his hops and jumps, it would seem.”After Crystal Palace I felt God was directing my path, almost literally, off the runway,” Edwards elaborated. The moment might well have been chosen for him, at Crystal Palace two weeks ago, when he veered off the runway and twisted his ankle.As it was, the 37-year-old made it to Paris, and on Friday morning, at the Cit?niversitaire, in the very shadow of the Stade Charlety, he announced his swansong intentions – quoting Proverbs 16, Verse 9: “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps”. “I live to fight another day.” Just the one more day, though, in a career that has been in overtime for three years now.Edwards has been jumping in bonus- land ever since he grasped his personal grail, an Olympic gold medal, in Sydney three years ago There were no peaks left for him to scale The only question was when he would choose to climb down. After a tentative opening jump measured at 16.30m, he ventured out to 16.94m, sufficient to secure his passage as the sixth-best qualifier.”Warming up before the competition I didn’t feel too good, but out there I was all right,” Edwards said.

The question was whether his fragile right ankle would get him through the qualifying round and into tomorrow’s final The answer came in round two. But there was the vicar’s son yesterday morning: back in Paris, at the Stade de France, preparing for his final hops, steps and jumps on the opening day of the World Championships. Nine years have passed since that nadir – nine years, three world records, two world titles, one Olympic gold, one European championship and a Commonwealth crown.Edwards has not so much been a triple jumper as become the triple jump. No other athlete has hopped, stepped and jumped within 20cm of the world record he set in Gothenburg eight years ago, a mammoth 18.29m.It might so easily never have happened.