World Championships: lining up for the long jump

Dave Goodwin points Almanac readers in the direction of this excellent piece on the World Aths Championships website:

http://daegu2011.iaaf.org//newslistdetail.aspx?id=61661

 

Dave goes on to say:

 

Today, 30 August, is the 20^th anniversary of a magic moment in sport. Carl Lewis’ quest for Bob Beamon’s world record of 8.90 metres and beyond to 9 metres was one of the great sporting fascinations of the 1980s – ultimately doomed, but on this day Carl took silver with his greatest leap of 8.87 metres.

 

Mike Powell’s two decade old world record of 8.95 metres stands as a true landmark.

 

The men’s long jump at the Daegu World Championships is happening this Friday night, 2 September.

 

Australia’s outstanding Mitchell Watt, bronze medallist at the last Champs, has a best of 8.54 metres.

Almanackers will appreciate his sound footy pedigree. As a junior athlete he won the All-schools nationals in 1999 (Long Jump), 2000 (Long Jump), 2001 (Long Jump [national record], Triple Jump [national record], 100m). After the 2001 All-schools nationals, he decided to take a break from the sport for over 5 years. He took an interest in Australian Football and Rugby Union. In Australian Football he won two State premierships during high-school (2004, 2005) playing as a ruckman. In Rugby Union, he played in the outside backs and was vice-captain of theBrisbaneBoysCollege1st XV. He was a reserve for The Queensland Schoolboys in 2005, a team which several current Wallabies played in.

Footy’s loss is the world’s gain.