Believe it, Jonathan.
Jonathan Edwards, the unassuming British triple jumper who finds it hard to believe what he has accomplished, smashed the world record twice at the World Championships.In shattering the mark for the first time, Edwards became the first jumper to surpass 59 feet, his previous record, by soaring 59-7, on his first attempt.
On his second try, he surpassed the magical 60-foot barrier by a quarter of an inch.
After those efforts, the first time anyone has broken his own triple jump record twice in the same meet since Brazilian Adhemar Ferreira da Silva did it during the 1952 Olympic final at Helsinki, the shaken Edwards passed twice.
He then completed his remarkable series by jumping 57-43/4 before again passing.
"It is difficult to take in," Edwards, 29, had said after first setting the record of 59 feet at Salamanca, Spain, breaking Willie Banks' 10-year-old mark of 58-111/2. "In my mind, there is still a distance between what I read about and who I am.
"People are comparing my performances to those of Bob Beamon and Butch Reynolds, and that feels very odd because these are legends in the sport, And this is just me. It's quite humbling to do what I've done."
Only a year ago, Edwards, the son of a churchman, was hardly close to being a legend. In fact, he was very depressed after being afflicted by the Epstein-Barr virus.
The illness, which causes mononucleosis, interfered with his training and continued to affect him until March.
"The whole spectre of post-viral syndrome was hanging over me," Edwards said. "I felt low physically and mentally. All I wanted to do was re-establish myself this season."
He has re-established himself with amazing authority.On June 11, he broke Keith Connor's 13-year-old British record of 57-73/4, leaping 57-81/4. On June 25 in the European Cup at Lille, France, he surpassed the world record three times, including a remarkable 60-53/4, but each jump was wind-aided and unable to be accepted as world marks. He did, however, have a legal 58-13/4, another British record.
Five days after breaking Banks' record last month, Edwards jumped 59-4 at Gateshead, England, but again it was wind-aided.
Coming into the championships, he didn't know what to expect.
"I didn't think I could do it," he said Monday. "I've been petrified for the last three days. I've had such a good season, but suddenly it could all go wrong. Someone could come out and do a really long jump."
Nothing went wrong and no one was jumping longer than Edwards.
"There are no words to describe this season," he said after setting the meet's first world record on the third day of the championships. "The secret of my records? Keeping the speed down the runups and takeoffs.
"To achieve an 18-meter (59-03/4) jump on my first try was, of course, a surprise to me. It helped me to be relaxed.
"Someone told me this was the Beamon jump at sea level. I don't like sayings like that one."
Edwards, a religious man, missed the 1991 World Championships because he would not jump on a Sunday. Two years later, he relaxed his rule and won the bronze medal at the 1993 championships.
In the past, Edwards thought he should be doing something more important than triple jumping.
"Sometimes I lie in bed at night and think: `I jump into a sandpit for a living,' " he said. " `Am I doing anything worthwhile?' The pointlessness of it. You see doctors in Rwanda and think: `They are making a difference, but I am jumping into a sandpit.' Who benefits from that?"
That sandpit turned into a gold mine of records and a gold medal for Edwards on Monday.
While Edwards was celebrating, Olympic and defending world champion Mike Conley was struggling. He finished seventh with a wind-aided 55-73/4.
Conley, an assistant coach at Arkansas, watched two of his pupils, Brian Wellman of Bermuda and Jerome Romain of Dominica, get the silver and bronze medals. Wellman went a wind-aided 57-93/4 and Romain a wind-aided 57-81/2.
Edwards' two records overshadowed the day's other finals, including Gwen Torrence's victory in the women's 100 meters in 10.85 seconds and Dan O'Brien's third straight world title in the decathlon with 8,695 points, the year's best score.
Torrence, the Olympic 200 champion and winner of four medals at the 1993 World Championships - a gold in the 1,600 relay, silvers in the 200 and 400 relay and a bronze in the 100 - added to her medal collection with a sparkling 10.85 triumph.
"The 100 is every sprinter's race," said Torrence, who will compete in all four events again this time. "We all want to be the world's fastest woman. It's the glory event. As a sprinter, you want that title. I got it and I'm very pleased."
In winning, Torrence beat a glorious field. Jamaica's Merlene Ottey was second at 10.94 and Russia's Irina Privalova third at 10.96. Ottey's silver was her 11th medal since the championships began in 1983 and made her the biggest medalist ever, one ahead of Carl Lewis.
"You have to raise yourself to another level when you're racing Irina and Ottey," Torrence said.
O'Brien, the world record-holder, did not win a single event outright - he tied for first place in the high jump - in continuing his dominance of the two-day, 10-event competition.
But he had enough consistent performances to overcome the lack of victories in beating runner-up Eduard Hamalainen of Belarus by 206 points
In Monday's other final, Irina Stankina of Russia won the women's 10-kilometer walk in a meet-record 42:13.