Long jump

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Image:Sdiri vole.jpg The long jump (formerly called "broad jump") is an athletic (track and field) event in which athletes attempt to land as far from their take-off points as possible.

Competitors sprint down a runway (at elite level, usually coated with the same rubberised surface as running tracks) and jump as far as they can off a slightly raised wooden board into a pit filled with fine gravel or sand. The minimum distance from the board to the indentation made by the competitor in the gravel is measured. If the competitor starts his leap with any part of his foot in front of the board (a layer of plasticine is placed immediately in front of the board to detect this occurrence) the jump is declared illegal and no distance is recorded.

The exact format of the competition varies, but generally each competitor will get a number of attempts to make his or her longest jump, and only the longest legal jump counts towards the results. The competitor with the longest legal jump at the end of competition is declared the winner.

Speed in the runup and a high leap off the board are the fundamentals of success at the discipline, and it is unsurprising that many sprinters, notably including Carl Lewis, also compete successfully in the long jump.

The long jump has been part of Olympic competition since the inception of the Games.

The long jump is also notable for two of the longest-standing world records in any track and field event. In 1935, Jesse Owens set a long jump world record that was not broken until 1960 by Ralph Boston. Later, Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 meters (29 feet, 2-1/2 inches) at the 1968 Summer Olympics, a jump not exceeded until 1991. On August 30 of that year, Mike Powell of the USA leapt 8.95 meters at the World Championships in Tokyo. Jumps longer than 8.95 meters have been recorded (by Carl Lewis and Ivan Pedroso), but were not validated since there was either no reliable wind speed measurement available, or because wind speed exceeded 2.0 m/s. The current world record for women is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former Soviet Union who leapt 7.52 meters in Leningrad in 1988.

The long jump was one of the events of the original Olympics in Ancient Greece. The athletes carried a weight in each hand, which were called halteres. These weights would be swung forward as the athlete jumped, in order to increase momentum, and then thrown backwards whilst in mid-air so as to propel himself further forward. Most notable in the ancient sport was a man called Chionis, who in the 656BC Olympics staged a jump which was equal to 7 meters and 5 centimetres (23 feet and 1.5 inches) [1].

Top 10 performers

Accurate as of January 1, 2006.

Men

Mark	Wind	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
8.95	0.3	Mike Powell	Template:USA	Tokyo	August 30, 1991
8.90A	2.0	Bob Beamon	Template:USA	Mexico City	October 18, 1968
8.86A	1.9	Robert Emmiyan	Template:URS / Template:ARM	Tsakhkadzor	May 22, 1987
8.84	1.7	Carl Lewis	Template:USA	Tokyo	August 30, 1991
8.74	1.4	Larry Myricks	Template:USA	Indianapolis	July 18, 1988
8.74A	2.0	Erick Walder	Template:USA	El Paso	April 2, 1994
8.71	1.9	Iván Pedroso	Template:CUB	Salamanca	July 18, 1995
8.63	0.5	Kareem Streete-Thompson	Template:USA / Template:CAY	Linz	July 4, 1994
8.62	0.7	James Beckford	Template:JAM	Orlando	April 5, 1997
8.60	0.5	Dwight Phillips	Template:USA	Linz	August 2, 2004

Women

Mark	Wind	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
7.52	1.4	Galina Chistyakova	Template:URS / Template:RUS	Leningrad	June 11, 1988
7.49	1.3	Jackie Joyner-Kersee	Template:USA	New York	May 22, 1994
7.48	0.4	Heike Drechsler	Template:GDR / Template:GER	Lausanne	July 8, 1992
7.43	1.4	Anisoara Stanciu	Template:ROM	Bucuresti	June 4, 1983
7.42	2.0	Tatyana Kotova	Template:RUS	Annecy	June 23, 2002
7.39	0.5	Yelena Belevskaya	Template:URS / Template:BLR	Bryansk	July 18, 1987
7.37	N/A	Inessa Kravets	Template:URS / Template:UKR	Kyiv	June 11, 1988
7.33	0.4	Tatyana Lebedeva	Template:RUS	Tula	July 31, 2004
7.31	1.5	Yelena Khlopotnova	Template:URS / Template:KAZ	Alma Ata	September 12, 1985
7.31	-0.1	Marion Jones	Template:USA	Zürich	August 12, 1998

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