Long Jump Stockholm: Echevarria Goes 8.83. Will he get WR?

As an avid track and field fan ever since my schoolboy days, I have no idea what are good marks in imperials units for the field events. I've learned to figure out what is a good mark in metric units and how they incrementally adjust the bars for the jumps. It's also easier to discuss the measurements in meters and centimeters rather than talking about the marks in 1/8th or 1/3rd of an inch. That sounds like more nonsense than a 8.47m long jump.

wineturtle wrote:

ex-runner wrote:

None. There is a mark in the sand much further back where his elbow dragged as he landed.

In my opinion that early elbow landing mistake cost him an 8.90+ jump

Really hard to tell from the video tricky camera angles. But -------I think the mark you refer to ( the top one most distant from the camera) is from the touchdown point of his heel and his right elbow actually landed in that heel depression.

Also agree the rollback mark was further from the board .

It could well be his heel that made that mark.

Amazing to think that with some improvements on his technique this 19 year old could be scaring one of the oldest and most revered WRs in athletics!

I didn't think I'd ever see an 8.90m jump in my lifetime to be honest. Now I'm thinking this kid could jump 9m

Good Lord! Good news it did not jump further. He would have injured himself. Even here he touched the end of the pit. Had he jumped 9.00m he might have broken his legs. On a non record eligible jump.

Don't you know Finnish when you hear it?

Now you know why they are better at track per capita than America.

JumpsDoctor wrote:

His takeoff is still pretty mechanically terrible.

somebody go tell the guy who jumped 8.83 that his takeoff is terrible

I see your point - but mine was that he has quite a bit of improvement left. I'd tell him to his face that he's going 9m+ once he tightens up his last step. Don't be so sensitive. Just because he's jumping far doesn't mean his technique is perfect. He's 19 years old, and will continue to develop as he has been.

I don't know whether there is a kind of intuitive understanding in Europe of just how far 8.83m is, but Americans will convert it to feet and inches because they have that kind of understanding for distances. In the typical 8.2-8.5m range of winning jumps, I assume that it is somewhere around 27 feet but don't know quite where the line is, and I know that 8.90/8.92 are the two long-standing records, but 29'2 1/2" and 29' 4 1/2" sound a lot farther and being nearly three times the distance from the court to a basket (10' exactly) brings it home just how far this is. Why anyone would get angry that we use the British system in a non-scientific context is beyond me.

Had to add this clip of a Carl Lewis jump that was supposedly over 30 feet. The video has degraded so much that it is hard to see and you don't see where he took off from in relation to the board but he is well past 9 meters certainly. 30 feet is 9.1440 meters.

Tired of all the metric snobs on this thread.

28 feet, 11.638 inches.

In other words, less than Powell, Beamon, Lewis, and Emmiyan.

Was his foot completely over the board (if that is the white flash in the video) or on it, if right after that?

Some guys just catch lightning in a bottle in the LJ. Beamon's next closest jump to his record was nearly two feet shorter. And almost 10 inches for Powell. At 19 I like his chances, but that might have just been the jump of his life, never to be seen again.

JumpsDoctor wrote:

I'd tell him to his face that he's going 9m+ once he tightens up his last step. Don't be so sensitive. Just because he's jumping far doesn't mean his technique is perfect.

'Perfect' technique rarely yields the performances most would expect. You prolly would have told Bob Beamon to "tighten that last step" too, right?

I misremembered Powell's wr in metric, 8.95m.

Dwight Stones and Lewis insist that the latter didn't foul in that 9m+ jump because it was ruled a foul despite his not making a mark past the board. And Powell says he broke the record on pure hate. In that competition in 1991, Lewis jumped something like four times near 29', a 28'11 3/4", a 29', a 29'4 or so with too much wind. And Pedroso's supposed world record at Sestriere was not submitted because someone was standing in front of the gauge during his jumps. There were 60 jumps in the competition with 56 with illegal wind, Pedroso having the only legal jumps.

https://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/the-jump-for-the-ages/

minong wrote:

Some guys just catch lightning in a bottle in the LJ. Beamon's next closest jump to his record was nearly two feet shorter. And almost 10 inches for Powell. At 19 I like his chances, but that might have just been the jump of his life, never to be seen again.

+1

When I was born WR was 8.13 Jesse Owens

PhD in Jumps results wrote:

'Perfect' technique rarely yields the performances most would expect. You prolly would have told Bob Beamon to "tighten that last step" too, right?

Again, I stand by what I've said. Have you ever long jumped? The penultimate step in the long jump is supposed to be the longest stride in the entire approach. This allows a jumper to sink their hips (which is referred to as "compression") low to the ground. The takeoff step is just about the shortest. If it is taken in an optimal manner, with the foot planted as close as possible to squarely underneath the hips, then it allows for an efficient decompression off of the board. The penultimate and takeoff step work in tandem to allow the jumper to redirect their horizontal velocity along the runway into a vector that retains as much of that horizontal velocity as possible, while doing their best to a introduce a vertical component to their velocity as best as possible.

Obviously, Echevarria gets tremendous height off of the board, while maintaining his speed (which is considerable) very well. That being said, I just don't think it is debatable that he has not yet optimized his last few steps. He certainly compresses his hips upon his penultimate step, and his technique in the air is great, but the laws of projectile mechanics mean that once you've left the ground, your trajectory is set. The last few steps really, really matter. Carl Lewis, who had excellent technique, produced EXTREMELY consistent results. His penultimate and final steps were on point. Every time. It makes a huge difference. Mike Powell was a great high jumper who happened to be very fast, and he was able to translate his speed and vertical leap into a WR by getting the takeoff mechanics down. If you pause the video of Echevarria's jump right when his foot is still planted on the ground from his penultimate step, you can see for yourself how much he reaches for the board. I know he is tall and moving quickly, but I promise he has a lot of room to translate his abilities into further jumps.

Don't know why this offends people. You aren't seeing the bigger picture. This could be the first man over 9 meters. I'm just pointing out that he doesn't necessarily have to rely on getting stronger or faster to do it. You're selling him short if you think that this is the best he can do. The long jump is an extremely precise event, so you're wrong to not put stock into getting precise about technique.

Sorry for the long post. I get triggered about this stuff. Again, I think Echevarria is a crazy athlete. I'm just nerding out about the possibilities. If you're a long jumper, we can talk more about it if you think differently. But if you haven't long jumped before, you gotta understand that it can be a blessing to have a lot of room for improvement in a jumping event. Especially if you've just produced the furthest all-conditions jump since 1991.

JumpsDoctor wrote:

I see your point - but mine was that he has quite a bit of improvement left. I'd tell him to his face that he's going 9m+ once he tightens up his last step. Don't be so sensitive. Just because he's jumping far doesn't mean his technique is perfect. He's 19 years old, and will continue to develop as he has been.

His landing was downright terrible.

JumpsDoctor wrote:

But if you haven't long jumped before, you gotta understand that it can be a blessing to have a lot of room for improvement in a jumping event. Especially if you've just produced the furthest all-conditions jump since 1991.

Not a jumping expert here, so I'd be curious to get your input. For both Beamon and Powell, were their record jumps technically perfect?

Isn't regulation for the board suppose to be like 3 meters back? Why would it ever be that close in a professional meet? Is it a short runway?

Attrition wrote:

Isn't regulation for the board suppose to be like 3 meters back? Why would it ever be that close in a professional meet? Is it a short runway?

Ah, the board is suppose to be "1-3" meters back and the pit is suppose to be 7-9 meters long. Seems like an unfortunate combination for this guy

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