(Athletics news): On August 30 1991, Mike Powell jumped an astonishing 8.95m in the Men’s Long Jump as it was one of the most competitive battles between Powell and Carl Lewis. Carl Lewis at that time was a two time Olympic and World champion in Long Jump, he was the favourite to win for the third time. Until that jump Carl Lewis had set the previous Championship of 8.67m at Rome in 1987 and the World record of Bob Beamon had the World record of 8.90m which was set in 1968.
The 1991 World Championships was held in Tokyo, Japan. In the athletic community, sprint events are the one which gets most of the attention but this time Mike Powell and Carl Lewis made the world focus its attention in Long Jump. The first three jumps saw Lewis taking a huge lead with a jump of 8.83m with Powell in second with a jump of 8.54m. The next three jumps saw both the athletes giving their best to win the Gold. Lewis jumped a wind assisted 8.91m in his fourth attempt, this was the first time a human had jumped over 8.90 since Beamon but it was not considered valid because it was wind aided. Powell jumped 8.95m to shock the world as well as the two time champion, Lewis then jumped 8.87m in his final jump to mark the perfect finish to the event. Larry Myricks came a distant third with a jump of 8.42m.
The more jaw dropping fact is that Bob Beamon set the Olympic record of 8.90m way back in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico. He couldn’t feel his legs after the results came and collapsed to his knees, this amazing feat gave birth to a new term called Beamonesque which means an athletic feat so superior to what has come before, it is overwhelming. Carl Lewis came closest to breaking the Olympic record when he jumped 8.68m in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and this year’s 2020 Tokyo Olympics Long Jump Gold medallist Juan Miguel Echevarría had recorded a jump of 8.50m which is also the season best.
Beamon’s effort could have won him the gold even after a period of 53 years. Powell's jump is magnificent indeed but one has to understand the kind of impact and the level of Beamon’s jump that demolished the previous records. It brought up questions about how far can humans jump and the possibility of a jump over 9 metres. In the Tokyo Olympics only 8 athletes could jump over the 8m mark thus showing how difficult it is to break the World record and also how Beamon’s jump is nothing short of historic and is one of the most influential events in Athletic history. Prior to Beamon’s jump the Olympic record was 8.12m by Ralph Boston in 1960, the world record was 8.35m which was achieved twice as Ralph did it in 1965 and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan equalled it in 1967.
The Long Jump event since then has not seen anyone threatening the record, only Powell and Beamon have touched the 8.90m mark and Lewis is closest with 8.87m. In the last twenty years, Dwight Phillips has come the closest with a jump of 8.74 in 2009 and the most recent one was by Tajay Gayle in 2019 when he jumped 8.69m. No athlete has ever come close since then, whoever shall break the record needs to leap over fear and self doubt.
