Current Olympic long jump champion, Greg Rutherford became a father for the first time when his son Milo, weighing 8 lbs was born on October 20th. Along with his girlfriend Susie Verrill, they gave him the full name of Milo Andrew William James Nugget Rutherford, quite a 'mouthful' but they had reasoning behind the extra names. 'William' and 'James' were in homage to grandparents and 'Nugget' was how they referred to their child when Susie first became pregnant, so the name seems to have stuck.
When interviewed by Hello! Magazine recently after the birth, Rutherford said that the birth had brought him more pleasure than all his sporting achievements, although as far as sporting success the Olympic Gold was still his crowning moment.
He has also voiced the potential for Winter Olympics' success perhaps at the skeleton bob event, after other winter Olympians have suggested he could have many of the essential attributes from his long jump training and performances to do well at that. Having never even tried out the event up to now, it is far too early to pencil him in for PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018, but it seems that he intends to have a try out over the next few months to see if he has an aptitude or not.
It capped what has personally been a great season for the Milton Keynes' athlete, as he took both the Commonwealth title in Glasgow and European Championships' Gold in Zurich, to silence many of the doubters who had questioned his ability. He will now seek to prove himself more than a one hit wonder on the global stage as he targets the World Championships next year in Beijing, China, and then on to Rio for the Olympics of 2016. The British number one doesn't seem to see having a new born as a hindrance to his future ambitions though, instead hoping to harness the positive emotion to help him jump further.
With the birth, it now means that all of the three
Athletics' gold medallists on Super Saturday at London 2012 have now had sons or daughters to carry on their legacy. Distance hero Mo Farah and his wife Tania had twin daughters Aisha and Amani back in 2012, while heptathlon Golden Girl Jessica Ennis- Hill (who married Andy Hill in 2013) gave birth to Reggie back in July this year. What price one or more of them achieving international (maybe even Olympic) glory in the future for Team GB and if so, which one of them will it be and in which event(s)? It certainly makes for a mouthwatering thought for British sporting fans as they look ahead.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED