2004 – Jumps Review

In the sixth part of their end of year review, statisticians A. Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava continue with their appraisal of this year, here concentrating with the highlights of the jumping competitions which took place in 2004.

MEN - Jumps

High Jump
It is somewhat surprising that this year an 'always-small-winning margins-event' like the High Jump had one dominant figure who managed to win all his competitions (eight indoors and fourteen outdoors) including the World Indoors and the Olympics: Stefan Holm.

He was not – even figuratively – “head and shoulders” above his competition and there were a number of close calls – especially the Olympics where he was outside the medals when the bar was raised to 2.36, equal to his personal best outdoors. But he always managed to find that little bit of extra energy which is needed to prevail in the end – especially at the Olympics.

Although the Olympic triumph was his first ever gold medal in an international outdoor championship, Holm has been a part of the international scene ever since his 8th place in the World Indoors in 1997. His toughest opponents in this Olympic year have also been around for a while, with the main exception being 20-year-old Jaroslav Baba.

The Czech actually showed the greatest consistency at 2.30+ of the others, so given his age he looks set to develop into the toughest challenger to Holm next year. Jamaican Germaine Mason who is just one year older, missed this year due to injury but if he manages to return to full fitness he also has the potential for greater heights.

The same of course must be said for 2003 World champion Jacques Freitag who despite being troubled by his chronic and persistent ankle problems still had two meets at 2.34 and 2.31, which illustrated his awesome potential if he can stay healthy for a long period.

With Stefan Holm’s world leading marks of 2.37 indoors and 2.36 outdoors it might appear that the magical 2.40 barrier remains far out of reach, but actually Holm had a number of jumps (mainly indoors) that clearly demonstrated such heights are a distinct possibility for him. The most recent 2.40 was Vyacheslav Voronin in 2000, and the next to last was by Javier Sotomayor in 1995.

Looking at the general standards they remained quite stable with 7 at 2.34+ and 21 at 2.30+ outdoors. In the years 2000-2003 the corresponding numbers were 9/23, 5/21, 5/21 and 6/24.

High Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Stefan HOLM  76 SWE 1382
2. Yaroslav RYBAKOV  80 RUS 1287
3. Jaroslav BÁBA  84 CZE 1280
4. Jamie NIETO  76 USA 1262
5. Andriy SOKOLOVSKIY  78 UKR 1252
6. Matt HEMINGWAY  72 USA 1236
7. Svatoslav TON  78 CZE 1221
8. Mark BOSWELL  77 CAN 1219

Pole Vault
Traditionally this event was almost exclusive US property but during the 1970’s they lost that firm grip and the European vaulters took over. However, it seems that the old magic returns nowadays to the US every Olympic year. Four years ago Nick Hysong and Lawrence Johnson scored a 1-2 in Sydney, and now in Athens Tim Mack and Toby Stevenson turned the same trick.

And the Athens success was no fluke as Mack & Stevenson also finished 1-2 in the World Athletics Final. Both also joined the illustrious “six metre club” in 2004 which clearly separated them from the otherwise extremely tight “lead group”: Crammed into 5.80-5.85 almost twenty athletes swapped places with each other from meet to meet during the summer.

The event is also growing “old” with the average age for the top-10 reaching almost 30 and with only two vaulters among the top twenty born in the 1980’s (i.e. under 25). So it is perhaps only logical that the two new 6m-vaulters are far from being young upstarts: Mack turning 32 and Stevenson 28 in the Olympic year.

Especially noticeable is that traditionally strong Pole Vault nations like France, Germany and Russia seem to be finding it hard to discover and develop new teenage talents, and therefore are at the risk of meeting the same low key destiny as Poland encountered after their great successes in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Pole Vault - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Timothy MACK  72 USA 1372
2. Toby STEVENSON  76 USA 1333
3. Igor PAVLOV  79 RUS 1306
4. Derek MILES  72 USA 1302
5. Aleksandr AVERBUKH  74 ISR 1295
6. Tim LOBINGER  72 GER 1292
7. Patrik KRISTIANSSON  77 SWE 1274
8. Rens BLOM  77 NED 1255

Long Jump
The Olympic Long Jump final in Athens was an historic competition as it was the first ever international championship where Jesse Owens’ legendary World record from 1935 – 8.13m – would NOT have earned a place in the top-8! The old “top-8 record” was 8.10 from the 1987 World Championships, and on only a couple of other occasions has 8.00 been surpassed.

So it was really a major event when this time 8.21 didn’t bring more than the 8th place. 8.21 is a mark which “normally” would have made you a medal contender finishing 3rd, 4th or 5th. Also if you look at the qualifying round Athens provided an all-time high, as an 8.05 leap was not sufficient to advance to the final.

However, at the top end it was not that exceptional. Dwight Phillips, who with his consistent 8.30+ jumping completely dominated the event leading up to the Olympics, decided the Olympic final with his 8.59 opener. Phillips thus added the Olympic title to the World indoor and outdoor golds he got last year.

Despite missing Savanté Stringfellow and Miguel Pate due to injuries, the USA still got an Olympic double as the previously unheralded collegian John Moffitt in his first appearance on the international scene, improved his PB by 18 centimetres to 8.47. Last year Moffitt was operating at a about a half a metre lower level!

When using a yearly world list to analyse trends and levels it is always important to realise that one single mark per individual can create a more or less distorted picture. This is especially true for an event like the Long Jump where the gap between the top mark and the second best of the year for an athlete often is remarkably big. e.g. out of the 26 jumpers at 8.20 or better in 2004, only 9 had another 8.20+ mark. Actually only seven more surpassed 8.10, and five of these 8.20-jumpers had no more 8m-competitions at all!

But what could be noticed without serious reservation is that the Long Jump is perhaps one of the most diverse events when it comes to the nationalities represented. In the top-10 there are eight different nations and the 26 strong group of 8.20+ jumpers comprised no less than 19 nationalities! 

Long Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Dwight PHILLIPS  77 USA 1355
2. Joan Lino MARTÍNEZ  78 ESP 1291
3. Egnatius GAISAH  83 GHA 1276
4. James BECKFORD  75 JAM 1268
5. Bogdan TÃRUS  75 ROM 1267
6. Chris TOMLINSON  81 GBR 1266
7. John MOFFITT  80 USA 1263
8. Vitaliy SHKURLATOV  79 RUS 1259

Triple Jump
Summarising last year, Christian Olsson dominated the event by consistently reaching 17.50+ and acquiring winning margins of almost half a metre.

Judging from 2003 – and with Jonathan Edwards retired – Olsson appeared to be a very safe bet for the 2004 Olympic gold. His margin of superiority was so large that he “just” needed to retain his own form to still remain in control even if the opposition managed to improve considerably. But one of the charms of sports is that nothing is forever and that the balance of power can change quickly.

So although Olsson did his part (he retained his own consistent 17.50-form) it so happened that coming into the Olympics he was in just 5th place on the year list! It appeared that the opposition had managed to not just to improve considerably but catch up completely.

First Kenta Bell recorded 17.76w in April, then Jadel Grégorio reached 17.72 in Sao Paulo in early June, then the US Olympic Trials in mid-July saw Melvin Lister at 17.78 and Walter Davis at 17.63, and finally Danila Burkenya bounded to 17.68 in late July, while Olsson’s best was a 17.61 from early June. Another ominous sign was that his one-and-a-half year winning streak ended on home soil at DN Galan in late July, when Marian Oprea in rainy weather won by 2cm with 17.30.

But when it finally mattered in Athens, Olsson let his superiority show. In a relaxed “safety” jump in the qualifying round Olsson landed at 17.68. The best ever mark recorded in a preliminary round. It also marked the 6th straight international championship (since 2001) in which he had surpassed the automatic qualifying standard on his first try, never needing any second or third attempts. Some kind of record?

And in the final he was drawn to jump first and despite a little bit too much adrenalin, which caused him to slightly overstretch the first two steps with the consequence that he had to abort the third step to avoid over rotation, his opener measured 17.69! It didn’t kill the competition like in Paris 2003 Worlds but it was never surpassed or even closely approached by anyone else, as Oprea and Burkenya got the other two medals with 17.55 and 17.48 respectively.

But Olsson himself managed to improve reaching 17.79 in the second round whereby he also rose to the No 1 position on the 2004 World List. Although the winning margin shrunk from 44 in Paris 2003 to 24 in Athens 2004, Olsson’s superiority was very clear as he had the four longest jumps of the competition – despite taking only five attempts, as he passed the last (6th) when the victory was secured.

So even if he was not so far ahead of everybody else as in 2003 Christian Olsson still ruled the Triple Jump. Something underlined by his share of the TDK Golden League Jackpot after winning all six meetings: In Bergen by 27 cm, in Rome by 11 cm, in Paris by 4 cm, in Zurich by 8 cm, in Brussels by 18 cm and in Berlin by 24 cm, so demonstrating his consistency with all six winning marks between 17.41 and 17.58!

Looking at the general standards of the event, 2004 turned out to be one of the very best years ever. The number of 17.00-jumpers outdoors (31) didn’t quite reach the all-time high but after seven years at 19 to 25 the improvement was significant. And the number over 17.50 - eight - was the second best ever after the record year 1985 which had nine!

Triple Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Christian OLSSON  80 SWE 1428
2. Jadel GREGÓRIO  80 BRA 1345
3. Marian OPREA  82 ROM 1342
3. Danil BURKENYA  78 RUS 1342
5. Francis Yoandri BETANZOS  82 CUB 1283
6. Kenta BELL  77 USA 1277
7. Walter DAVIS  79 USA 1259
8. Leevan SANDS  81 BAH 1255

 

WOMEN - Jumps

2004 was a high standard season for women’s jumping events. This season witnessed a serious face lift for the Long Jump in particular, but the other three events also progressed well.

Yelena Slesarenko (RUS) took control of the High Jump in style. The 22-year-old Russian first won the World Indoor Championship equalling her national record of 2.04m and then took the Olympic gold surpassing Tamara Bykova’s national record of 2.05m by 1cm and winning at 2.06m.

Women’s Pole Vault saw several World records broken but it was always Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS), who was going to be number one of the season in this event. Isinbayeva won the World Indoor Championships and the Olympic Games with World record performances.

In the Long Jump there was a surprise name to take on the earlier favourites, because Tatyana Lebedeva (RUS), the best triple jumper in the world, decided to take on that event as well. And she did that exceptionally well, landing both the World Indoor and Olympic titles in the end, and also set a world season’s best performance of 7.33m in the Russian Championships in July.

In the Triple Jump, Lebedeva, however, was beaten in Athens. She took the World Indoor title, but was left with only a bronze medal in the Olympics when Francoise Mbango (CMR) jumped to the Olympic gold with an African record of 15.30m. Overall, the quality of the women’s jumping events went higher in each of the four events which is very rare these days.

High Jump
Yelena Slesarenko took the crown of the leading athlete from Hestrie Cloete during the 2004 season in the women’s High Jump. The young Russian came to the season with only a personal best of 1.97m outdoors and 1.98m indoors.

But it was a different story right from the start as she started the indoor season with first career 2.00m clearance in Volgograd on 17 January. Coming to compete in the Budapest World Indoor Championships she definitely was not the main favourite, although she had won the Russian Indoor Championships earlier. She had first time clearances one after one, including the winning height of 2.04m, with which she equalled the national record. Her first outdoor meeting in the European Cup Super League in Bydgoszcz ended with exactly the same result of 2.04m, bettering her outdoor personal best by 7cm in one competition. Slesarenko was defeated only once in her 11 outdoor competitions, in Rome by Cloete with both jumping over 2.03m.

Although the South-African maintained her good form in the Olympics, she was not at the level which she reached when winning at the Paris World Championships in 2003 (2.06m) and her silver medal performance of 2.02m was 4cm below Slesarenko’s Olympic gold medal winning 2.06m. The Russian even went on to try the World record of 2.10m in Athens. Viktoriya Styopina (UKR) took a surprising bronze medal from Athens with a personal best of 2.02m, dropping Amy Acuff (USA) to fourth place with 1.99m.

There were a total of 24 competitions at 2.00m or higher by eight athletes. Even though the absolute top in the event was very good, some depth was lost despite the fact that 2004 was an Olympic year. There were only 20 athletes over 1.95m, while in 2003 there were 26, which was even better than the 22 during another Olympic season of 2000. In 2002 and 2001 there were 17 at this height. In 2004, Russia had 12 athletes in the world top 100, just better than the USA’s 11, Ukraine was third with 8.

High Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Yelena SLESARENKO  82 RUS 1431
2. Hestrie CLOETE  78 RSA 1404
3. Viktoriya STYOPINA  76 UKR 1329
4. Blanka VLAŠIÆ  83 CRO 1321
5. Amy ACUFF  75 USA 1308
6. Irina MIKHALCHENKO  72 UKR 1275
7. Anna CHICHEROVA  82 RUS 1273
8. Inga BABAKOVA  67 UKR 1257

Pole Vault
Women’s Pole Vault was all about World records during the 2004 summer. One statistical fact shows the rising standard at the top of this event pretty well. In 2003 there were a total of 11 marks at 4.70m or higher, but in 2004 this was doubled to 22.

Yelena Isinbayeva was unchallenged for most of the season and was only defeated once indoors and once outdoors. On both of these occasions the winner was Svetlana Feofanova also producing World records in both competitions, first with 4.85m in the Athens indoor meeting in February and then, also in Greece in Iráklio in July, winning with another World record of 4.88m.

Apart from these two meetings, Isinbayeva was in awesome form, her final score in the end was a massive seven World records and one indoor. Both of her titles during 2004 came with World records and in generally high standard competitions. In the Budapest World Indoors she won with a World record of 4.86m in front of former World record holder Stacy Dragila’s 4.81m leap. Isinbayeva even went on to try once at the magical 5.00m height.

Three more World records were broken by the 22-year-old Russian in between Budapest and Athens, however, in the Olympics she faced early problems before converting them to another World record of 4.91m and took the Olympic gold medal. Isinbayeva had been tied in the lead with Feofanova, but then she went to fail both 4.70m and 4.75m before clearing 4.80m for the win with her first attempt - which of course was also her last at that height because of the two earlier failures.

Isinbayeva added another World record of 4.92m in Brussels in the beginning of September before ending her season with a win (4.83m) in the World Athletics Final in Monaco a couple of weeks later.

Overall, depth saw dramatic progress during the 2004 season, there were a total of 42 athletes over 4.40m with only 31 in 2003 and 29 in 2002. United States had a huge pot of 24 athletes in the world top-100, Germany and Russia were tied for second with ten.

Pole Vault - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Yelena ISINBAYEVA  82 RUS 1478
2. Svetlana FEOFANOVA  80 RUS 1383
3. Stacy DRAGILA  71 USA 1304
4. Anna ROGOWSKA  81 POL 1293
5. Monika PYREK  80 POL 1277
6. Tatyana POLNOVA  79 RUS 1266
7. Thórey Edda ELISDÓTTIR  77 ISL 1224
8. Anzhela BALAKHONOVA  72 UKR 1205

Long Jump
After many quiet years, the women’s Long Jump finally saw several 7m jumps during the same season and this time even an Olympic medal was not achieved without a seven metre jump. Of these 11 x 7m competitions, nine were achieved by the Russian trio Tatyana Lebedeva, Irina Simagina and Tatyana Kotova, who also topped the Olympic charts in the same order.

Lebedeva, a triple jump specialist, surprisingly took on the Long Jump starting the season with an impressive 6.93 in Volgograd in January. The 28-year-old Russian jumped to win both the Long and Triple Jump in the Budapest World Indoor Championships, winning the former with a personal best of 6.98m. Lebedeva’s first outdoor meeting accounted for her only defeat in this event before the Olympics, as she finished second to Kotova’s 7.00m, jumping 6.91m.

The Olympic final was the most even ever, and Lebedeva took the gold with 7.07m, only 2cm ahead of Simagina who got the silver with 7.05m, which was the same result as Kotova in the bronze medal position. Elva Goulbourne (JAM) broke the Caribbean and Central American record with a 7.16m jumped at high altitude in México City in May, but was unable to reflect that form in other meetings at sea level. In the Olympic final, Bronwyn Thompson (AUS) was left back in fourth place with a high standard mark of 6.96m which would have been enough for a medal in all major championship competitions during the last few years.

Some overall depth in the event was lost. There were a total of 22 athletes over 6.70m, with one more, 23, in 2003. 2002 had 17, with 22 in 2001 and a massive 36 in the previous Olympic year of 2000. Russia had 14 athletes in the world top-100, just edging USA, who had 13. Germany was third with seven.

Long Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Tatyana LEBEDEVA  76 RUS 1380
2. Tatyana KOTOVA  76 RUS 1327
2. Irina SIMAGINA  82 RUS 1327
4. Marion JONES  75 USA 1278
5. Bronwyn THOMPSON  78 AUS 1260
6. Anju Bobby GEORGE  77 IND 1251
7. Jade JOHNSON  80 GBR 1224
8. Grace UPSHAW  75 USA 1223

Triple Jump
With no athletes over the 15m limit in 2002 and only three in 2003, 2004 showed good progress with seven athletes over 15m, all with national records and personal bests as well.

Tatyana Lebedeva was the best in 2003 and she continued on that road this season too. She suffered her first loss of the season in the Olympic final, having taken an indoor World record of 15.36m and a national record of 15.34m outdoors on the road to Athens.

But surprises kept on coming in the Athens Olympic stadium. First in the qualification, Hrisopiyí Devetzí jumped a huge national record of 15.32m - just 2cm behind Lebedeva’s world leader - to the absolute delight of the home crowd. The Greek’s improvement on her earlier outdoor personal best was 67cm! So the final seemed to be destined to be a duel between the Russian and Greek, with perhaps a challenge from Yamile Aldama (SUD), but that did not count on Francoise Mbango (CMR), the world leader of 2002.

Mbango, the 2003 World Championships silver medallist landed at 15.30m, an African record and clear lead in round-two having fouled her first effort. Mbango had only managed to take sixth place in the World Indoor Championships with 14.62m, her indoor best this season, and came to Athens with a season’s best of 14.85m. So her Athens leap was a huge 45cm improvement on her previous best during 2004, and was enough to take the Olympic gold.

Devetzí succeeded with her third try in jumping 15.14m for second place, and improved to 15.25m in round four, but to the huge disappointment of the home crowd, that was all she could do in the final. NB. she would have won the Olympic gold with her qualification mark.

Tatyana Lebedeva only got past Trecia Smith (JAM, 15.02m) in round five to go into bronze medal position with 15.04m and improved to 15.14m with her last effort, but that wasn’t nearly enough to win the competition.

Overall, the women’s Triple Jump showed very good quality during the season and at the Olympics too. There were a total of 27 athletes at 14.30m or better, many more than the 22 in 2003 or 19 in 2002. Russia clearly had the most athletes in the world top-100 with 18, China was second with 12, and Cuba and Greece tied for third with six.

Triple Jump - IAAF WORLD RANKINGS - as of 13 Dec 2004  
Position - Name - DOB - Country - Points
1. Tatyana LEBEDEVA  76 RUS 1414
2. Yamilé ALDAMA  72 SUD 1373
3. Francoise MBANGO ETONE  76 CMR 1339
4. Chryssopigi DEVETZI  76 GRE 1338
5. Trecia SMITH  75 JAM 1318
6. Anna PYATYKH  81 RUS 1298
7. Magdelín MARTÍNEZ  76 ITA 1295
8. Olena GOVOROVA  73 UKR 1260