IAAF
USA’s Dwight Phillips has donated a pair of spikes to the
IAAF Heritage Collection which is currently on public display in Qatar ahead of
the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019.
Phillips, the 2004 Olympic and four-time world long jump
champion, has given the shoes which he wore when leaping to bronze at the 2007
IAAF World Championships in Osaka.
The spikes were symbolically handed over to the collection
in Doha via the safe hands of Qatar’s best young long jumper, 18-year-old
Rasheed Abdullah Al-Suwaidi, who trains in Aspire under the guidance of coach
Al Walid Abdullah.
“My donation of these shoes is all about ‘giving-back’ to
the sport which has given me so much,” said Dwight Phillips, who retired in
2013 with a personal best of 8.74m (2009).
“I’m really pleased that my Osaka spikes will now sit in the
IAAF Heritage Collection alongside the kit of Jesse Owens, Carl Lewis and Mike
Powell to name but a few.
“I hope the spikes will be an added attraction for fans and
help motivate young athletes like Rasheed to aim high in their careers,”
confirmed Phillips, who also took gold at the 2003 IAAF World Indoor
Championships.
The spikes will be on show until the 7 October in the IAAF
Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition which was opened last month
by IAAF President Sebastian Coe and Dahlan Al Hamad, IAAF Vice President and
Director General of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 local
organising committee. The exhibition is situated in the City Center Doha, the
largest shopping mall in Qatar.