World record holder, Jonathan Edwards (76-84 G) has been heaping praise on his old school at the North Devon Sports Foundation Dinner recently.

“The North Devon Sports Foundation does a fantastic job and it’s great to be here to support it,” said Jonathan Edwards, the world’s greatest triple jumper, speaking at the foundation’s annual Celebrity Dinner at Saunton Sands Hotel. “When I went to the World Student Games in 1987 my dad went along Ilfracombe High Street asking shopkeepers for contributions. “To have something like the North Devon Sports Foundation doing that for the athletes here is amazing.”

Edwards, 48, who lives in Newcastle, said North Devon is “where I would call home” and talked with pride of how he ran past his childhood home in Ilfracombe with the Olympic Torch in 2012.

He also paid tribute to West Buckland School where he first tried triple jump as an 11-year-old. “West Buckland means a huge amount to me,” he said. “To have the Jonathan Edwards Sports Centre is really quite bizarre because the school gave a lot more to me than I ever gave to it.”