Bejing’s Olympics will feature a phony long jump. Ostensibly the take off before or on the board measures an athlete’s jump distance. It is a wrong measure since it short changes the jumper.
The jump is measured from the board. Some athletes have a hard time gauging distance approaching the board and fail at hitting it. Some take off well before the board and get no credit for airtime gotten before they crossed the board. Others take off beyond the board and get disqualified.
High jumpers can take off from where they like.
Let’s totally STAY LOOSE about this and use Olympic leadership. Lay out an area four or five feet long to use for take off. A jumper could leave the ground anywhere within the area. The measurement would be made from where the long jumper actually lifted from the ground. The jumper could leave the ground within an area sufficient to give him flexibility and then get an authentic measurement of his jump. He would run hell bent for leather and then take off. We’d have a true long jump measure to the point where he landed. This will give us a true ground distance calculation.
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