This Will Never Happen Again || The Greatest Long Jump Competition of ALL TIME

on august 30th of 1991 the world witnessed one of the greatest duels in track and field history in the men's long jump final at the tokyo world championships carl lewis from the united states entered as the heavy favorite for the previous 10 years he had been one of the most dominant athletes in the history of the sport and in addition to his seven world championship gold medals and six olympic victories he also had a long jump winning streak of 65 straight wins since 1981 he had been untouchable when it came to the long jump completely dominating his competition by enormous margins with such a stellar jumping background lewis undoubtedly was expected to win these world championships but over the next two hours he was tested to the absolute limit in round one of the long jump finals mike powell from the united states was set to jump before lewis and out of everyone else in the competition he was considered the one athlete with a chance to take down his american rival on his first jump he clearly misjudged his steps before takeoff and this mistake clearly limited his overall effort for his first jump powell only managed a jump of 7.85 meters which was far short of his previous best of 8.66 meters up next was the big pre-competition favorite carl lewis for his first jump he maintained excellent speed down the runway and he leaped to an amazing distance of 8.68 meters which was two centimeters farther than powell's personal best at the time this was indeed a fantastic first round jump and even in the eyes of the announcers this leap was already good enough to win the competition with a legal wind of zero meters per second for this leap this jump was one of the 20 greatest jumps in the history of the event clearly lewis was ready for this competition and even after his first jump it seemed as though he was still invincible for round two powell was again up first and after his rather short first jump in lewis's excellent round one this effort was very important with solid speed down the runway he clearly jumped farther than his first round effort but with another race on the track it was difficult to see exactly how far he jumped after a few minutes of waiting it was announced that powell had jumped a distance of 8.54 meters and even though this was still a decent distance behind lewis he had asserted himself as a real competitor up next was lewis who was intensely staring down the runway as he frequently did again with his calculated run-up and powerful take off he flew through the air to a huge distance that honestly looked as though it challenged the world record this jump was clearly longer than his opening round but sadly it was a foul as he stepped over the line upon takeoff even though this jump was not legal it was just barely over the line and if he could make this small correction and jump the same distance the world record would be in serious danger for round three powell was clearly ready to make improvements again with great speed down the runway he again took off much better than round one but for this jump the height simply was not there and upon seeing how far he jumped he immediately knew that this was not enough still this jump was 8.29 meters but it still was far away from taking down lewis now it was lewis's turn after a solid first round jump and a very big second round foul he had his eyes set on greatness and for round three he delivered one of the longest jumps of all time with terrific speed and a nearly perfectly calculated takeoff he left to a distance of 8.83 meters which now put him well ahead of powell by almost 0.3 meters this was also the third longest jump ever at the time however the wind reading was 2.3 meters per second which was just over the allowable limit of 2.0 still this put lewis in the gold medal position by an enormous margin and at this point in the competition it seemed almost impossible for anyone else to catch him [Music] for round four powell opened with a world-class jump and immediately after he landed he knew that it was great however about 10 seconds after starting this celebration the long jump official announced that it was a foul this was a shock for powell and as you can clearly see he did not agree with the official on this call however upon reviewing the replay we can see that he ever so slightly stepped over the white area just barely stepping on the green stripe which of course is the illegal marking for the jumpers this jump was honestly close to perfect if he had been just one millimeter back upon takeoff it was very possible that he would have broken the world record on this jump it really did look as though he had jumped beyond 8.9 meters but unfortunately this was a foul with this incredible foul lewis knew that powell was ready to jump very far but it was also clear that lewis was ready to jump into history just like his round three jump lewis quickly darted down the runway and exploded upon takeoff jumping a massive distance just shy of nine meters however unlike his round three jump this jump was actually farther than the previous world record lewis had just jumped 8.91 meters this was the first time in 23 years that anyone had challenged the previous world record set by bob beeman in the 1968 olympics but unfortunately the wind reading was again just over the allowable limit as it read 2.9 meters per second regardless of the wind this jump was enormous for over two decades no one could challenge the previous record but somehow this jump had surpassed the magical mark of bob at this point almost everyone considered the competition to be all but over but for his next round jump mike powell responded in one of the greatest moments in track and field history just after watching carl lewis jump 8.91 meters powell soared into the history books with a new world record of 8.95 meters [Music] amazingly the wind reading for this jump was only 0.3 meters per second which meant that this jump was the single greatest long jump of all time understandably lewis was in shock for the previous 10 years he had been completely untouchable and even though he had just become the first person to ever jump over 8.9 meters he was only able to enjoy this moment for a few minutes this leap from mike powell was simply unreal his speed his timing his height and his landing were all almost perfectly executed but managing this incredible leap just after lewis jumped 8.91 meters was truly legendary this jump shook the entire stadium and now with two final jumps remaining the big question was could carl lewis surpass this new world record for his next attempt lewis again soared to a distance close to nine meters and even though it looked as though it could challenge powell's new world record it fell just short at 8.87 meters this jump from lewis was actually quite incredible because he had just jumped 8.87 meters into a headwind as the wind reading was negative 0.2 meters per second if lewis somehow had a tailwind for this fifth round jump it's quite possible that he could have tied powell's world record however he still had to settle for second place for this final round the pressure was through the roof at this point powell was sitting in first place with a new world record and for his final round he again jumped an incredible distance however upon review it was in fact a foul so his earlier jump of 8.95 meters was now the mark to beat now it was lewis's final jump in this already amazing competition and for this final moment if he wanted to continue this undefeated stretch he would have to jump farther than anyone else in history again with intense focus and incredible speed lewis made one final jump to break this world record this jump was again close to the 9 meter mark however it fell just short of mike powell as it measured 8.84 meters this was clearly one of the most unbelievable competitions of all time and it was certainly one of the most riveting and unbelievable moments in long jump history for two straight hours the world saw some of the greatest long jumps that anyone had ever seen and in round five of this competition the world record was set and to this day nobody has ever challenged this unbelievable leap you

Channel: Total Running Productions

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Keywords: Long Jump World Record, Carl Lewis Long Jump, Mike Powell Long Jump, World Record, Track and Field World Record, Greatest Long Jump Ever, Long Jump Tips, Mike Powell World Record, Carl Lewis World Record, Mike Powell

Id: Ksz9vA6XumQ

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020