Athletics: Injury worries for Edwards as rivals up the pressure

European Athletics Championships: World No 1 suffers fitness setback as contenders for triple-jump gold soar into final with assured leaps

The problem with being No 1, as Jonathan Edwards well knows, is that there's always someone trying to move up from No 2. Having completed his set of triple jump titles in Manchester last week, the 36-year-old Olympic, world, European and – belatedly – Commonwealth champion recognised that the next challenge would arrive immediately.

"You can't afford to rest on your laurels," he said in the aftermath of his Commonwealth victory. Yesterday's events here at the 18th European Championships proved how right he was, as well as leaving a doubt over whether he will be fit enough to contest Thursday night's final.

The good news for the Gateshead athlete was that he qualified at his first attempt, registering an effort of 16.99 metres. It was the first time in five years that he could recall making a final with one jump.

The bad news was twofold. Firstly, his grimace of pain as he left the pit attested to the fact that he had aggravated an injury which had been hanging around for a couple of weeks, and although there was no suggestion yesterday that he was dropping out of the competition, doubt remains over his fitness.

"My shin is a bit sore," Edwards said after his jump. "I got a bit of contact when I landed heavily. It's been a bit tender for the last couple of weeks. I'm assuming if the ankle doesn't go up like a balloon I'll be OK, but it's swollen a little already."

Meanwhile, the two young contenders who have registered victories over the great man this season were moving into the final with assurance. Sweden's Christian Olsson registered a first jump of 17.10m, and Phillips Idowu, who took Commonwealth silver for England behind Edwards with a personal best of 17.68m, produced a prodigious qualifying effort of 17.54, his second best ever.

Edwards was waspish about his England team-mate in the aftermath of his victory in Manchester, saying that he needed to make technical improvements, and insisted that Olsson was the man he regarded as his most pressing challenger. "Phillips has shown at the Commonwealths that he can be a challenger for the world No 1 position," Edwards said, adding with a wicked grin: "After I retire."

But Idowu clearly has other ideas, and his performance here indicated the scope of his ambition. The flamboyant 23-year-old Londoner admitted that his performance yesterday had been something of a surprise, but added that he was feeling "really good".

It sounds promising. But the wily Edwards had a little spin to impart before leaving the subject. "That has to be one of the furthest – if not the furthest – jumps ever achieved in a preliminary round," he said. (It was, in fact, the second furthest in a European Championship behind the 17.59m achieved by Leonid Volishin of Russia in 1990). "But it could be a mixed blessing for Phillips. Now he'll have big expectations and will have to live with them for the next two days." Edwards knows of what he speaks – but it is a tribute to Idowu's talent that he has got to work on the mind games.

Olsson, meanwhile, is moving quietly through. A year ago, at the Edmonton World Championships, Edwards responded to his challenge to remind him that he wasn't ready to move over from the top. But the 22-year-old from Gothenburg has jumped a personal best of 17.80m this season, just six centimetres less than the effort Idowu pushed Edwards to make in Manchester. And his comments after yesterday's qualifying indicated that, although he has a healthy respect for Edwards, he is far from overawed by him.

"He always has a little pain after competition," Olsson said. "He's an old man now, isn't he? It hasn't stopped him before. But this event wouldn't be the same if Jonathan wasn't competing. If I win over Jonathan I will feel much better."

Daniel Caines and Tim Benjamin moved through to this evening's 400m semi-finals, but Sean Baldock found this an event too far after his Commonwealth exertions. Caines recorded 46.06sec to proceed as the seventh fastest qualifier, a place ahead of Benjamin, in 46.15. The mercurial Frenchman, Marc Raquil, was the fastest in the opening heats with 45.70, followed by David Canal of Spain, in 45.75, and the 6ft 7in home runner, Ingo Schultz, who recorded 45.79.

Russia's 21-year-old Olympic 800m finalist Yuriy Borzakovskiy remains a dark horse having qualified in 46.28.

Shelley Newman, Commonwealth bronze medallist in the discus, reached today's final with a 56.57m throw, but she will have to improve to challenge a field headed by Greece's Ekaterini Vogoli, whose opening effort was 61.94m.