US-based Brit hopes to build on his recent 8.08m long jump best at this weekend’s European Indoors in Poland

In 2015 the British long jumper Jacob Fincham-Dukes featured in the Rising Stars column of AW magazine and he won silver at the European Under-20 Championships in Sweden. Now, six years later, he is a medal contender at the European Indoor Championships in Toruń this week.

The 24-year-old has lived in Harrogate, Yorkshire, for most of his life but has been based at Oklahoma State University in recent years and after a promising teenage period that saw him win several English Schools titles, he improved recently to 8.08m at the British trials at Lee Valley for the European Indoor Championships.

That leap puts him No.4 on the UK all-time indoor rankings and on his ambitions in Toruń he says: “Obviously I’d like to win. I’m going into the championships ranked fourth so I’d be disappointed with less than that. And ultimately I’m going there to try to win.

“We look back on the 8.08m that I jumped and if I break it down I think I can jump further. Toruń will be a better facility to jump with a competitive atmosphere of a European competition. So we definitely feel like I can go further and I should be aiming to win, even if it will be tough.”

At those European Juniors from 2015 the winner was Anatoliy Ryapolov of Russia. Most of the leading contenders like Ryapolov are still active too. Thobias Montler, for example, another athlete who competed in the 2015 European Juniors, is in the line-up in Toruń with Fincham-Dukes.

Favourite for gold, though, is Greek athlete Miltiádis Tentóglou – the reigning champion and European No.1 this year.

READ MORE: Euro Indoors preview – men’s field events

Fincham-Dukes began life as a sprint hurdler and says he was a reluctant long jumper to begin with. But as he began to work with long-time coach Matt Barton in Leeds his performances have continued to improve. While studying at Oklahoma State University he has been coached by former triple jumper Zivile Pukstiene. “People struggle to pronounce her name,” says Fincham-Dukes, so we call her Coach Zee!

“She’s been great for my development so I’m really glad I got to meet and train with her,” says Fincham-Dukes. “And I’ve enjoyed every minute of being at Oklahoma State.”

She also works well with his UK-based coach Barton and the athlete says: “Matt created that fundamental base for me and he keeps me ticking over and developing when I come back.”

Indeed, Fincham-Dukes has been back in the UK since early February although of course this week he hopes to make his mark in Poland with his qualifying round on Thursday.

It will be an unusual competition with no spectators and lots of safety procedures but he is taking that in his stride. “It all fairly usual now,” he says. “I have my negative results to show at the airport and we get tested at the hotel and the facility on entry and all the way along and then of course before we come back to enter Britain. It’s quite standard now and how we live life, I guess.”