Greg Rutherford is quietly confident about his Strictly Come Dancing chances despite the gruelling practice regime

OLYMPIC long jumper Greg Rutherford thinks he might be the dark horse in this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

The star put his heartbreak after winning a bronze medal at the Rio Olympics behind him as he competed at the Sun backed Great North City Games in Newcastle.

Cheered on by dance partner Natalie Lowe, the athlete easily won the showpiece event.

But it was then straight back into dance training.

Rutherford said that he hasn’t had a chance to take dance lessons over the summer because of training commitments for Rio.

He said: “This is the biggest thing in my life, it has taken over.

“I’m no dancer but Natalie is a fantastic teacher. I feel like we might be better than I first thought.

“We are working really hard at the moment. I was dancing last night before I jumped today and it was good. We are trying hard.

“When I agreed to do it I thought I would go and have a dance lesson beforehand but I didn’t have time because of the games. So this week was the first time we had practiced.

“Some have come from a semi dancing background so they had an idea of what was going and they might have been practising all summer, I wish I could have!”

Greg, 29, said the new training regime was punishing.

He said: “We go from here then go to a dance studio and we dance this evening. My confidence isn’t quite there yet so once we learn one or two more moves I will be more happy to showcase them a little bit.”

Greg praised the Sun backed event which saw the world’s top athletes compete in the long jump, pole vault and 100 metres.

He said: “I was very keen to come here but I didn’t want to do any damage. I didn’t want to come away from here hurt.

“This is a brilliant event. It is free and gives people who can’t afford to go and see athletics to come along and watch.

“Nowhere can you get so close to athletes, it’s amazing.

“It is the future of athletics.”

Partner Natalie was impressed seeing Greg in action.

She said: “He is amazing, that was incredible.”