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Idowu keeps hair lucky red for Beijing LONDON — British triple jumper Phillips Idowu said yesterday he would keep his hair dyed red to bring good luck in Beijing, and he was on track for winning Olympic gold. "In China, red is a lucky colour," the 29-year-old world indoor champion told reporters. "I didn't realise that — my hair was red all through the season but someone told me that and Beijing was coming up and I thought let me keep it that way," he said at a news conference ahead of the London Grand Prix this weekend. China has long seen red as a lucky colour that wards off evil spirits — hence the red walls of the Forbidden City, gifts of cash in red envelopes and red paper cut-outs in Chinese homes. Idowu, known for sporting an array of hair colours and facial piercings, will be competing at his third Olympics next month having failed to win a medal in Sydney and Athens. The Briton is favourite for gold, particularly after Sweden's Olympic champion Christian Olsson pulled out of the August 8-24 Games with a thigh injury on Tuesday. Idowu set a new British and Commonwealth indoor record with the sixth furthest jump of all-time in March, and recorded this year's longest jump at the British Olympic trials earlier this month. "(Winning gold in Beijing) is the plan, that is what we have been working for all year and it looks like it is going that way," he said. "I've just got to do what I've been doing all year." Idowu said he would like to emulate former Olympic triple jump champion Jonathan Edwards, whose 1995 leap of 18.29 metres remains the world record, but was keeping level-headed. "I am just getting on doing what I need to do. We've still got a couple of weeks before I get onto the runway, there is some tweaking that needs to be done and hopefully by the time I get out there to compete I will be in superb shape," he said. — Reuters