It is eight years since a British man last won an individual gold medal in athletics at the Olympics and during his competition, he stopped to watch the race of those Games. Jonathan Edwards stood by the side of the triple jump runway as Australian Cathy Freeman ran past him to triumph in the 400m on a night of unmatched drama in Sydney.

Not long after her, Edwards was climbing to the top of the podium to receive his glorious reward.

On Thursday here, it is Liu Xiang’s night, the evening when the whole of Beijing - possibly China - will stop to watch if the country’s biggest sporting hero can overcome injury to win retain his 110m hurdles title.

But will Phillips Idowu be following him to the top of the podium as Edwards did with the home grown superstar in 2000?

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Since the start of the winter season, one man has dominated world triple jumping. Idowu leapt 17.75m to win the World Indoor title in Valencia in March and then, outdoors, cleared 17.55m in Greece in Greece in June to set down a marker which only he has beaten, increasing the distance to 17.58m in Birmingham.

Coursework does not mean you are going to pass the examination. The Londoner knows that better than most.

He is the Commonwealth champion, but at the last Olympics in Athens, he suffered despair, failing to register a legal jump and missing the cut in the final. “The way it happened in Athens wasn’t nice, but I don’t like to think about it, or even talk about it now,” said Idowu, 29.

He does not quite have the aura of Edwards, not yet. But do not be put off that he has any arrogance if he walks away from the sandpit and struts away proud of his jump.

“I don’t do it to psych out other guys,” he says. “It's just for me, to make me feel good. It has nothing to do with intimidating the others, my distances should do that enough.”

Idowu has not lost a triple jump competition in 2008, but on all of those nine occasions he has arrived at the venue with Beijing on his mind. Not the gold medal, or the distance, or the atmosphere, but just the occasion, slowly preparing himself to feel right.

He will first enter the Bird’s Nest tomorrow morning for the heats. A moment he has been waiting for. “I am into visualisation,” said Idowu. “I have been thinking of every eventuality. I want be so comfortable when I make it to the stadium that every time I have been competing, that is what is going through my mind.

“I am not a person this year who allows any negative thoughts to seep into my head. I am really pleased with my performances.“