Rutherford: New garden feature can help me conquer world

For Greg Rutherford the newly-installed track that sits aside his house could be the key to completing his impressive medal collection.

While it didn't stop the 28-year-old jumping like a 'doughnut' on his way to British Championship gold on Sunday he believes it can help him take on the world.

Rutherford produced a modest 8.11 on his way to the national title at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium on Sunday but cut a frustrated figure as he struggled for rhythm.

It is a competition that the two-time Olympian hopes is the exception rather than the rule but he is leaving nothing to chance and will be using his new garden facility to prepare for next month's World Championships in Beijing. "I'll use it for my run-ups and any short sprinting, because it's 52 metres long. I can put decent 50-metre sprints down," he said.

"It will be a good training base. I've already got the home gym. Now I've got the track.

"My dad's a builder and I asked if we could put in a long jump pit. He said: 'Yeah, right.' He's a bit of a nutter like that. "I'll be training on it, getting ready for the worlds. It started off as a bit of a dream. Now it's becoming reality.

"I was jumping like an absolute doughnut which is really weird because a few competitions ago I was jumping 8.25-8.35 and feeling amazing.

"You have to accept that you do have days like that so it does happen and hopefully this is the one time this year that it does happen."

While a British title is never a bad thing Rutherford has his sights set on adding World Championship gold to his Olympic, European and Commonwealth titles. And he believes he has plenty of time to find his stride again ahead of the trip to China in August.

"Every time I went to jump there was nothing there so I really had to dig incredibly deep and I had to be really aggressive to jump 8.11," he added.

"I need to go away now, figure that out and improve because this won't do against the best in the world.

"I'm going into the world championships willing myself to win and believing I have the ability to win.

"I put that pressure on myself all day long because I am not here to be the best in Britain I am here to be the best in the world.

"It was a bad one but I will put it out of the way and move on to the next one."

© Sportsbeat 2015