MORE sequins than sand, more jive than jumping. Greg Rutherford competes in the Great North City Games on the Newcastle-Gateshead Quayside this afternoon, but while the event will bring his athletics season to an end, another adventure is only just beginning.

An hour or so after he completes the final round of the long jump, Rutherford will be whisked away to a secret location with his partner, Natalie Lowe, to continue his preparations for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing, which began on BBC One last weekend.

The reigning world champion, who won a bronze medal in the Olympic final in Rio last month, is determined to sign off his season in style as street athletics returns to the North-East.

But with the first of Strictly’s live shows due to take place in a fortnight’s time, he is even more desperate to transfer his long-jumping prowess to the dancefloor. Not, however, that the process has proved simple so far.

“The first live show is the 24th, so we’ve still got a bit of time to perfect the dances, which I’m going to need,” said Rutherford, who is one of two sportspeople competing in the new series of Strictly, along with gymnast Claudia Fragapane. “The first dance is pretty epic, and I’m getting really into this now. It’s really in your face, and there’s a lot going on.

“I’ve been devoting six hours a day to dance, and we only started training this week. It’s been relatively intense straight away.

“It’s very different because you’re on your feet a lot. You’re practising steps and trying to put them into an actual dance scenario, whereas when I’m training, I might do a few reps and jump for a while, but then I’ll have a bit of a rest.

“It’s very different on that front, but it’s good and I think the benefit I’ve got is that I’m coming from a fairly fit scenario in terms of just having competed at the Olympics.”

Rutherford has won multiple Great North City Games titles, and will start as a strong favourite to record another success this afternoon. But is he as confident about triumphing in the final of Strictly in three months’ time?

“The competitive streak is always there, but I’m having to curb it slightly because I know I’m not a dancer,” he said. “It’s not like I’m coming into this having done ten years of stage school, and I know what I’m doing.

“I come in as a complete ultimate novice. I want to improve and do well, and that’s my competitive side, but I’m not saying I want to win. It’s more to try and learn and see if I can have some fun.

“I’ve not heard anyone talk about winning. We have a What’s App group where we chat to each other, and it’s more about, ‘How hard are you finding this?’ That’s what everyone is saying.”

Rutherford took on the Strictly challenge to give himself something to do before the start of winter training, but he also admits the experience is helping him move on from this summer’s Olympics, an event that marked one of the few disappointments in his career.

The 29-year-old travelled to Rio as the reigning World, Olympic and European champion, but his season had been wrecked by injury and he was still struggling with a muscular problem as he prepared to defend his title.

He unconvincingly scraped through qualifying, and while his performance level improved in the final, he was only able to finish in third position behind American Jeff Henderson and South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga.

Even his bronze medal was in doubt until he produced his best leap of 8.29m with his final jump, although things might have been different had his fourth jump not been controversially adjudged to be a foul, even though subsequent replays showed Rutherford’s foot had been behind the board at take-off.

“It’s still a difficult one for me,” he said. “The season started incredibly well, I felt in incredible shape, and first competition out, I beat the guy who ended up winning the Olympics.

“I felt good, it’s just very frustrating that certain things came into play this year that I didn’t experience last year.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow because I have no doubts that I should have been a double Olympic champion. A mixture of injuries and things going wrong meant it wasn’t to be, but I take my hat off to the two guys who beat me because they did very well.”

Rutherford must now decide whether to continue competing to Tokyo in 2020, and while he is committed to competing for two more years, he remains uncertain about whether to tackle what would be his fourth Olympic Games.

“I don’t do this to make up the numbers, and I won’t go to another Olympics if that’s all I am,” he said. “I’ll only go to another Olympics if I can win again.

“I’ve earmarked the next two years for sure, so we’ve got London next year (for the World Championships) and I’m very keen to go back to the Gold Coast (for the Commonwealth Games) because it’s a beautiful part of the world, and because in 2006, my first major was in Melbourne. If that was to be the end of my career, which I’m hoping it’s not, it might be a nice way to finish.”