(MONTE CARLO, ZZZ) - The men's triple jump competition at next month's world championships in Daegu, South Korea, was all set to be one of the headline duels.
But Britain's defending world champion Phillips Idowu was stripped of his supposed main rival in the battle of the hop, skip and jump event when Teddy Tamgho fractured his ankle last week at the European under-23 tournament.
Tamgho, the French tyro who is the reigning world indoor champion and had set a season's lead of 17.91m, was ruled out for the season, but a successor was seemingly quickly found in the shape of Ukraine's Sheryf El-Sheryf.
El-Sheryf, born in Simferopol to an Ukrainian mother and Sudanese doctor father, went on to win the Euro under-23 crown in Ostrava, Czech Republic, with a jump of 17.72m, far beyond his previous best of 16.93.
Suddenly Idowu has found himself a new rival -- and a complete unknown.
"I've never heard of him," admitted the 32-year-old Idowu. "I only heard about the result (from Ostrava) a couple of days later.
"But triple jump is like that. Sometimes you can pull out a big performance."
El-Sheryf admitted to some nerves ahead of his step-up to the big league in the Diamond League here on Friday, and of knowing Idowu "only from television".
"I'm nervous to be making my debut at my first major meet, but it's also a chance to perform at the highest level. I'm very excited," the 23-year-old said, adding that his jump of 17.72m had not come as a surprise to him.
"I've been expecting this result for a long time. I've always believed in myself and that it would happen," said El-Sheryf, who sustained a left foot injury that long curtailed his triple jumping but allowed him to continue the long jump.
Idowu also had a word of sympathy for the now-injured Tamgho, whom he labelled a good friend, bemoaning his absence at the Daegu worlds.
"It's a shame Teddy won't be competing. He drives me to jump further," Idowu said. "Having Teddy around means you have to be at your best.
"I wish him a speedy recovery. This season, me and Teddy have competed together, he won once and me a couple of times, so it was building up to being a really good head-to-head in Daegu, one of the best head-to-heads there.
"Still, there are a lot of people competing and it's a question of staying focused."
