Phillips Idowu: Putting his public spat on hold to focus on world gold

Discussing Van Commenee is 'waste of time' says Londoner who is focusing on beating the young pretenders

Given that he finished in the winner's enclosure with a lifetime best at the World Championships in Berlin in 2009 and again at the European Championships in Barcelona last summer, it could be said that Phillips Idowu has gained something of a thoroughbred reputation for himself in the hop, step and jump game. Perhaps it was only to be expected, then, that Britain's pedigree triple jumper kept the blinkers on yesterday as he finalised his preparations for the defence of his world title in South Korea next week.

After settling into the British team's holding camp in Ulsan, it was only natural to enquire of the Belgrave Harrier whether he intended to resolve his public differences with Charles van Commenee, the head coach of UK Athletics, between now and the end of the World Championships, which open in Daegu on Saturday and run until 4 September.

"Maybe you should ask him," Idowu replied. "Right now, my main focus is competing at the championships, so even talking about this is a waste of time. In this situation, I should really just keep my head straight and focus on the competition in hand, and not anything else that comes around that.

"Your [the British Press'] interest at the end of the year is not going to be whether I had a conversation with Charles but if I win that gold medal or not. That's what's going to make the headlines, not the fact that we have sat down and spoken. The only thing that matters is how I perform."

Still, as a matter of interest, had Idowu managed to sit down and speak with Van Commenee since arriving in Ulsan about the disputed circumstances of his withdrawal from the British squad for the European Team Championships in Stockholm in June? "I've only been in the camp a couple of days and I've just been trying to get over jet-lag," he said. "I've been working so hard I haven't had a chance to really meet up face to face with anyone other than my coach."

So there we have it. The spat is to be put on hold while Idowu goes about the business of attempting to retain his world title, with the qualifying round scheduled at the Daegu Stadium for a week tomorrow and the final for Sunday week.

The Hackney man – at 32, a veteran of three World Championships and three Olympic Games – is determined to maintain his focus, unperturbed not just by the rift with Van Commenee but also by the fact that he stands only fifth in the world rankings and that, despite the withdrawal of the injured Teddy Tamgho, he has a couple of emerging new rivals to contend with.

Idowu's best jump of the summer is 17.59m, which he achieved on his season's debut at the Golden Gala meeting in Rome in May. Tamgho heads the 2011 world list with the monster 17.91m effort he uncorked to beat Idowu in Lausanne in June but the 22-year-old Frenchman, the world indoor record holder and world indoor champion, suffered a broken ankle at the European Under-23 Championships in Ostrava last month and is out of commission for the rest of the season.

The much-anticipated World Championship showdown between the reigning champion and the great pretender has been averted, yet Idowu faces a couple of fast-developing young pretenders in Sheryf El-Sheryf of the Ukraine and Christian Taylor of the United States. El-Sheryf, 22, advanced his lifetime best from 16.92m to 17.72m to win the European Under-23 title. Taylor, 21, improved his personal best from 17.40m to 17.68m to beat a below-par Idowu in the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace a fortnight ago.

Idowu's lifetime best is 17.81m, which he jumped in claiming the European title in Barcelona last summer. "I really don't focus on my competitors, regardless of how good or how bad they are," he said. "I've just got to go out and do the job on the day. My priority is to win. If I need a personal best to do it, I know I've done the work to have that capability."

Having acquired the happy knack of producing what is needed to win when it matters most, Idowu will start as the man to beat in the triple jump in Daegu – although perhaps not with the kind of widespread recognition that his past deeds merit.

For all that Idowu has accomplished, the Londoner has not enjoyed anything like the same elevated public profile as the other defending world champion in the British team, heptathlete Jessica Ennis. Asked whether he felt "under-appreciated," Idowu replied: "Maybe. I don't know. That's a question for the public, not for me. My coach knows that I'm a great champion. My children do. My family do. My friends do. Their opinion is the most important to me."

Gatlin gets frostbite

Former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin has arrived in Daegu for the World Championships suffering from frostbite. The 29-year-old, who won 100m gold at Athens in 2004, said he contracted the problem after going into a cryogenic chamber with wet socks.

"It's better than it was. It was all blistered and stayed bubbled up for four or five days. There is a [cryotherapy] chamber [where I train] and I went in on a hot day and had socks on and the socks were wet from sweat. I was only in for two minutes, but for some reason the socks froze to my ankles. It felt like my feet were on fire... and it hurt to walk."