Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford has insisted that he is piling more pressure on himself to deliver at the Commonwealth Games than anyone else.
The 27-year-old is regarded as the favourite to take top honour in Glasgow tomorrow and improve on his performance at the 2010 Games in Delhi, where he managed silver, but Rutherford says that he is "not at all" fazed by the expectation.
Moments after he breezed through qualifying this morning with a table-topping jump of 8.05m in the first round, Sports Mole grabbed a quick chat with Rutherford to find out how his preparations are going.
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You qualified right off the bat there. You must be pretty pleased with that?
"That's the aim in the qualification, you want to get out there and qualify first round if you possibly can. As little as you can possibly do. Nothing is ever won in the qualification but you can lose a lot, so to go out there and get it out first round, I'm over the moon with that."
You set a new British record earlier in the year. Are you in your best form coming into the Games?
"I'm in pretty good form. Held together slightly by tape but I'm feeling good. It's always the way of an athlete I think - there's always ups and downs but hopefully it will be a good time tomorrow."
You got the silver at the last Games in Delhi. Does that spur you on to go one better now?
"Absolutely. You go into every competition looking to win and this is no different. I'll be coming out tomorrow, so I've just got to get my head straight and get everything in order [tonight]. In Beijing, I qualified very well but then had a 'mare in the final. I'm not that sort of athlete anymore but I'll come out tomorrow looking to do well in this competition."
How does the crowd here at Hampden Park compare to your reception at the Olympics?
"Walking out there, the response the crowd gave me was absolutely out of this world. It was so reminiscent of the Olympics. It sort of brought a tear to my eye again instantly. So I had to collect myself a little bit and get ready. It does feel like a home crowd here so to go down there and have a good first round, it is a great feeling. From that point of view, the crowd helps. It feels a lot like a little Olympics here, so yeah, I'm over the moon."
There's a lot of expectation on your shoulders going into these Games. Has that made it harder to deal with?
"Not at all. Ultimately if there's expectation on your shoulders it means you've done something good at some point in your career or this year. Ultimately I put so much more expectation on myself than anyone else ever can. I should do well at these Games and if I don't it's a huge disappointment for me. So I'm here to do well and that's what I expect."
Rutherford competes in the final of the men's long jump from 6.45pm on Wednesday.
