Extreme effort for Games hopeful Phelan

Wednesday 24th February 2010, 2:58PM GMT.

Simon Phelan in more conventional track and field action for Jersey

HIGH jumper Simon Phelan took his sport to a whole new level on Saturday.

The 23-year-old, who represented Jersey at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, was one of four athletes who took part in an extreme high jump exhibition alongside three BMX riders and two inline skaters at the UK Athletics Grand Prix in Birmingham, see back page picture.

Taking centre stage at the arena ahead of the likes of British record breaker Jenny Meadows, Mark Lewis Francis, and Olympic gold medallist Phillips Idowu, Phelan swapped his traditional fosbury flop for something a bit more unusual.

He said: ‘It was an amazing experience to be around all those top athletes as it is the situation I want to be in. The extreme high jumping event was the first of its kind and the idea was to show off just how hard the sport is and hopefully bring some young people into it.’

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