Long Jump, Men

Panama’s Irving Saladino had won this event in Beijing, after winning the 2007 World Championships, and he was back. But he had no significant major titles since 2008, and was not considered a medal favorite. He would fail to make a fair mark in qualifying. The two favorites were Australia’s Mitch Watt and Britain’s Greg Rutherford, with Watt given a slight edge.

The lead in round one went to Britain’s Chris Tomlinson, who jumped 8.06 but that was his best mark and he would eventually finish sixth. On the second round, Rutherford took the lead with 8.21, a mark that would have been good enough for the gold medal, but he would better that with 8.31 in round four and win gold. Watt was only fourth after three jumps, having only one fair jump with 7.97 in round two, but he improved to 8.13 in round five and 8.16 in the final round to get silver. The bronze went to surprising American Will Claye. Claye was actually on the US team in the long and triple jump in London and was considered better in the triple. He would win silver in the triple jump five days later, the first such medal double since 1936, when Japan’s Naoto Tajima medalled in both events.

Rutherford’s victory came on the second night of athletics at the Olympic Stadium and it was a magic one for British fans. His best jump came at about the time that Jessica Ennis started her 800 metres to finish what would be her heptathlon gold medal. Later that evening, Mo Farah would win the 10,000 metres to give Great Britain three gold medals on a surreal Saturday night.

The long jumping performances were less than seen in recent years. Some of this was attributed to difficult, shifting winds, but also to the fact that there was no single dominant long jumper in 2012. Only Rutherford surpassed 27 feet, and only 14 of 60 attempts were past the 8-metre barrier, or just 26-3 in Imperial measure.