Greg Rutherford has admitted that he was "nervous" about competing in Glasgow because he had been earmarked as the clear favourite to take top honours in the long jump.
The Olympic champ did add Commonwealth gold to his collection tonight with a best jump of 8.20m, but admitted to Sports Mole that the pressure had been getting to him coming into the competition.
"Ultimately that first round (yesterday's qualifiers) I was nervous, I'll be honest," he said. "I was nervous before I started yesterday. I think that was because I wanted to prove that I can still obviously do it and that I've got it in me and everything else.
"I came into this as the favourite and I had to perform. Everybody was expecting me to win this, which was obviously different to London."
Rutherford set the standard in the very first jump with an impressive 8.12m but admitted that it was a deliberate tactic to unsettle his rival competitors.
"The aim always when you come to a championships is to get a big first one out there," he added. "It can unsettle the other competitors as well [because] they know they've got to bring it. So to go out there and get an 8.12 straight away was just great."
Rutherford now turns his attention to converting European Championships silver into gold at next month's competition in Zurich.
Barney Corkhill
