26'3"/8.00m long jumping before 1960

[tandfman]

It was in Lafayette, Indiana.

[dadme]

Thanks. Now it looks complete.

[paulthefan]

what is a 26+ ft long jump with no wind no altitude no sci-fi suppliments and with the ancient benefits of a cinder runway. someone do the math.

[dukehjsteve]

It was in Lafayette, Indiana.

To be more precise, it surely was WEST Lafayette, at Purdue, and most assuredly at the Big 10 Championships, based on that late-May date.

[KDFINE]

To dukehjsteve:
Ernie Shelby's best legal jump was 26'1 1/4" or 7.95 at Bakersfield in 1956He had a windy 8.01 (26'3½") jump at Austin in 1958. My source is the 1965 A.T.F.S. All Time World List. All the other wind aided jumpers (only one listing per athlete) at 8.00 or better were from 1960 on. They were:
Boston 8.49 12 Sept 64
Shinnick 8.33 25 May 63
Horn 8.22 3 July 64
Eskola 8.15 21 Jun 63
Steinbach 8.14 24 July 60
Mayfield 8.10 13 Jun 63
Miller 8.09 3 July 64
Ahey 8.05 26 Nov 62
Mays 8.02 3 July 64
Shelby 8.01 28 Mar 58

Ahey was also credited with an 8.17 fom a sloping runway (6 Oct 62). I suspect that these listings were only for instances when the aided mark was surperior to the athletes' best legal mark.

[tandfman]

It was in Lafayette, Indiana.

To be more precise, it surely was WEST Lafayette, at Purdue, and most assuredly at the Big 10 Championships, based on that late-May date.

West Lafayette sounds right, but the 1958 ATFS Annual lists it as Lafayette (they could be wrong). The meet was the Indiana Intercollegiates, not the Big 10.

[jhc68]

Whoa.... before we pronounce these lists complete: a missing person from all these lists is the renaissance man-Cornell scholar-AFL football star, Irvin "Bo" Roberson. He finished a centimeter behind Boston at Rome (8.12 to 8.11) to take silver ahead of Ter-O. Did Roberson never have an 8.0plus mark before 1960? He had a 7.97 to win the 1959 Pan-Am Games.

[dadme]

OK here is my list.
Jesse Owens USA 8.13 1 Big10 Ann Arbor MI 25-May-35
Gregory Bell USA 8.10 1 NCAA Austin TX 14-Jun-57
Gregory Bell USA 8.10 1 vsURS Philadelphia PA 18-Jul-59
Willie Steele USA 8.07A 1 NCAA Salt Lake City UT 21-Jun-47
Roy Range USA 8.03A 1 PAmG Ciudad de México 14-Mar-55
John Bennett USA 8.01A 2 PAmG Ciudad de México 14-Mar-55
Igor Ter-Ovanesyan URS 8.01 1 Moskva 16-May-59
Eulace Peacock USA 8.00 1 AAU Lincoln NE 04-Jul-35
Jesse Owens USA 8.00 1 AAU Princeton NJ 04-Jul-36
George Brown USA 8.00 1 Fresno CA 10-May-52
Gregory Bell USA 8.00 1 Kalamazoo MI 10-May-58
Wind Assisted
Jesse Owens USA 8.06wa 1 OG Berlin 04-Aug-36
Gregory Bell USA 8.04wa 1 Indiana IC Lafayette IN 15-May-57
Ernie Shelby USA 8.01wa 1 TexR Austin 28-Mar-58
Igor Ter-Ovanesyan URS 8.00wa 1 Kus M Warszawa 14-Jun-59

[gh]

It was in Lafayette, Indiana.

To be more precise, it surely was WEST Lafayette, at Purdue, and most assuredly at the Big 10 Championships, based on that late-May date.

West Lafayette sounds right, but the 1958 ATFS Annual lists it as Lafayette (they could be wrong). The meet was the Indiana Intercollegiates, not the Big 10.

Unless Purdue has moved its track since then (there is evidence of Purdue-based structures on both sides of the river), I'd guess it was probably West Lafayette also.

[KDFINE]

Bell also had an 8.09 in Ontario, California in Oct., 1956. DADME posted that Owens' 8.06 in Berlin was wind aided. The A.T.F.S. Worle List of '65 lists it as legal. I thought it was legal. When Boston broke the Olympic Record in '60 it was Owen's record that he broke. If wind aided, it wouldn't have been the record.

[Per Andersen]

Bell also had an 8.09 in Ontario, California in Oct., 1956. DADME posted that Owens' 8.06 in Berlin was wind aided. The A.T.F.S. Worle List of '65 lists it as legal. I thought it was legal. When Boston broke the Olympic Record in '60 it was Owen's record that he broke. If wind aided, it wouldn't have been the record.

There is obviously confusion here. I have always thought that the final was wind- aided with winds about 3.5 m/s. The Germans never accepted Long's 7.87 as a national record.
Maybe dj or somebody else can set us straight here.

[pela2]

Bell also had an 8.09 in Ontario, California in Oct., 1956. DADME posted that Owens' 8.06 in Berlin was wind aided. The A.T.F.S. Worle List of '65 lists it as legal. I thought it was legal. When Boston broke the Olympic Record in '60 it was Owen's record that he broke. If wind aided, it wouldn't have been the record.

There is obviously confusion here. I have always thought that the final was wind- aided with winds about 3.5 m/s. The Germans never accepted Long's 7.87 as a national record.
Maybe dj or somebody else can set us straight here.

The official report has this series for Owens

7.74 7.87 7.75 - 7.941 8.06

The 7.74, 7.87 and 8.06 was new Olympic records, but the 8.06 was also marked as "Performances could not be recognized at Olympic records because of too strong back wind" (Long's 7.87 was also wind-aided)

[gh]

As printed in multiple reference sources, the official Olympic report never gave individual wind readings (this was a first-time thing, one must realize), but said all LJ illegal, with wind 3.5-3.7 (pretty tight range) behind the jumpers. German federation did not ratify Long's mark as an NR.

As for Boston "breaking the Olympic Record," I believe at one time the IOC (just as the Commonwealth people did for years--maybe still do?) didn't take wind into account when it came to ORs.

Indeed, I'm now getting a memory of Seoul, in which there was a mark (perhaps Flojo semifinal in the 100) where the printed sums came out showing her 10.70w as an OR, and Bob Hersh raised a big enough stink w/ the Technical Delegates (pointing out that they were setting themselves up for a situation where she might set an Olympic Record that was disallowed as a World Record), that they agreed that wind rules should apply. But this last is a vague memory.

[dakota]

I seem to remember Carl Lewis's 9.80w being touted as a World Championship record too but this idea seemed to get quietly dropped. If you watch the videos of his 9.86 win in Tokyo the onscreen graphics show WR 9.90 but CR 9.80 and so having the timer flash New WR when there's clearly something better already advertised right there on the screen probably made the whole thing look a bit goofy to anybody not in the loop about wind readings.

[eldrick]

what is a 26+ ft long jump with no wind no altitude no sci-fi suppliments and with the ancient benefits of a cinder runway. someone do the math.

about 14" at best, transported from '60 to '07