A world record holder in men’s long jump for 26 years, Mike Powell said he could have coached Anju Bobby George to an Olympic medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Anju, who secured a bronze medal in the 2003 World championship and a 2005 World Athletics Final gold medal in women’s long jump, did her personal best of 6.83m, a National record, to finish fifth in the Athens Olympics.
Powell, who was here as the brand ambassador of the Tata Steel 25K race on Sunday, said Anju could have finished on the Olympics podium.
“If I were with Anju Bobby George in 2004, she would have won a medal in the Olympics — maybe a gold… She had the potential to jump seven meters. For her it was not about the technique as much. It was in the mind — how to compete at the highest level, thinking I deserve it, I want to do this,” Powell said during a select media interaction on Thursday.
Powell said he would love to produce a world class jumper from India. “There are 1.3 billion people. I know some jumpers are there. I am sure of it.”
About the doping issues in athletics, Powell said the number was actually smaller considering the fact that a large number of athletes participated in various events across the globe.
The multiple World champion welcomed the overall ban on Russia, slapped by the IAAF, for propagating doping. However, Powell said the booing of World 100m champion Justin Gatlin, who dethroned multiple Olympics gold medallist Usain Bolt in the latter’s farewell race, was not fair.
“He (Gatlin) deserves better because he is following the rules. The rules say if you serve the suspension, then you can compete again. For me, he should be done for life.”
Powell did not support the European Athletics Association’s move to erase records made before 2005 as it would be unfair towards the clean athletes.
About his own record of 8.95m, which he made surpassing Bob Beamon’s 20-year-old mark of 8.9m, the 54-year-old said, “Records are made to be broken, but I don’t want to lose mine.
“Now the jumpers are very talented but they don’t seem to have the same mentality (which I had).”
Asked who among Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt would rank as the greatest athlete of all time, Powell said, “I think potentially Usain Bolt. He could have long jumped 9m had he trained for it.
“But I will have to give it to Carl, maybe even Jesse Owens because he broke four world records in one afternoon. But you talk about great athletes and three of them are definitely on top of the list.”
