Olympic champ Phillips is the man to catch

OLYMPIC long jump champion, Dwight Phillips, was among the early arrivals as the stars for tomorrow’s BUPA Cork City Sports at The Mardyke began to assemble yesterday.

The American arrived in Cork via Amsterdam along with one of his main rivals in Saturday’s showpiece event, Victor Castillo from Venezuela.

Phillips is something of an all rounder, having some world class times up to 400m - 6.47 secs for 60m indoors, 10.11 for 100m, 20.68 for 200m and 46.80 for 400m - but the long jump has always been his forte and, as a 21 year old he was already jumping 7.26m leading up to the Athens Olympics which were his finest hour.