HIGH JUMP

The 'high jump' is an athletics (track and field) event in which competitors must jump over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without aid of any devices. It has been contested since the Olympic Games of ancient Greece. Over the centuries since, competitors have introduced increasingly more effective techniques to arrive at the current form. Javier Sotomayor is both the indoor and outdoor world record holder in this event with jumps of 2.43 m (8 feet) and 2.45 m (8 feet ½ inch), respectively. Sotomayor's record, set in 1993, is the longest standing in the history of the men's high jump. Stefka Kostadinova has held the women's world record since 1987, the longest standing record in overall history of the sport.

Contents

History

Procedures and rules

Top performers

Men (outdoor)

Women (outdoor)

Men (indoor)

Women (indoor)

See also

References

External links

History

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at:1926 text:Phyllis Green_1,55_m
at:1929 text:Carolina Gisoll_1,60_m
at:1932 text:Jean Shiley_1,65_m
at:1939 text:Dorothy Adams_1,66_m
at:1943 text:Fanny Blankers-Koen_1,71_m
at:1956 text:Mildred Singleton_1,76_m
at:1958 text:Iolanda Balas_1,80_m
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at:1961 shift:(22,-7) text:Iolanda_Balas_1,90_m
at:1961 shift:(22,0) text:Iolanda_Balas_1,91_m
at:1971 text:Ilona Gusenbauer_1,92_m
at:1972 text:Jordanka Blagojewa_1,94_m
at:1974 text:Rosemarie Ackermann_1,95_m
at:1976 shift:(22,-8) text:Rosemarie_Ackermann_1,96_m
at:1977 shift:(22,-8) text:Rosemarie_Ackermann_1,97_m
at:1977 shift:(22,-1) text:Rosemarie_Ackermann_2,00_m
at:1978 shift:(22,-2) text:Sara Simeoni_2,01_m
at:1982 shift:(22,-6) text:Ulrike Meyfarth_2,02_m
at:1983 shift:(22,-8) text:Ulrike_Meyfarth_2,03_m
at:1983 shift:(22,-1) text:Tamara Bykowa_2,04_m
at:1984 shift:(22,-5) text:Tamara_Bykowa_2,05_m
at:1984 shift:(22,2) text:Ludmilla Andonowa_2,07_m
at:1986 text:Stefka Kostadinova_2,08_m
at:1987 text:Stefka_Kostadinova_2,09_m


Performed as early as the Olympics in ancient Greece, the first recorded high jump event took place in Scotland in the 19th century, with heights of up to (1.68 m) contested. Early jumpers used either an elaborate straight-on approach or a ''scissors'' technique. In the latter, the bar was approached diagonally, and the jumper threw first the inside leg and then the other over the bar in a scissoring motion. Around the turn of the 20th century, techniques began to modernise, starting with the Irish-American M.F. Sweeney's ''Eastern cut-off''. By taking off as if with the scissors, but extending his back and flattening out over the bar, the Sweeney achieved a more economic clearance and raised the world record to 6' 5⅝" (1.97 m) in 1895.
Another American, M.F. Horine, developed an even more efficient technique, the 'Western roll'. In this style, the bar again is approached on a diagonal, but the inner leg is used for the take-off, while the outer leg is thrust up to lead the body sideways over the bar. Horine increased the world standard to 6' 7" (2.01 m) in 1912. His technique predominated through the Berlin Olympics of 1936, in which the event was won by Cornelius Johnson at 2.03 m (6' 8").
American and Russian jumpers held the playing field for the next four decades, and they pioneered the evolution of the straddle technique. Straddle jumpers took off as in the Western roll, but rotated their (belly-down) torso around the bar, obtaining the most economical clearance to date. Straddle-jumper Charles Dumas broke the elusive 7' (2.13 m) barrier in 1956, and American wunderkind John Thomas pushed the world mark to 2.23 m (7' 3¾") in 1960. Valeriy Brumel took over the event for the next four years. The elegant Soviet jumper radically sped up his approach run, took the record up to 2.28 m (7' 5¾"), and won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, before a motorcycle accident ended his career.
American coaches, including two-time NCAA champion Frank Costello of the University of Maryland, flocked to Russia to learn from Brumel and his coaches. However it would be a solitary innovator at Oregon State University, Dick Fosbury, who would bring the high jump into the next century. Taking advantage of the raised, softer landing areas by then in use, Fosbury added a new twist to the outmoded Eastern Cut-off. He directed himself over the bar head and shoulders first sliding over on his back and landing in a fashion which would likely have broken his neck in the old sawdust landing pits. After he used this Fosbury flop to win the 1968 Olympic gold medal, the technique began to spread around the world, and soon ''floppers'' were dominating international high jump competitions. The last straddler to set a world record was the late Vladimir Yashchenko, who cleared 2.33 m (7' 7¾") in 1977 and then 2.35 m (7' 8½") indoors in 1978.
Among renowned high jumpers following Fosbury's lead were: Americans Dwight Stones and his rival, 5' 8" (1.73 m) Franklin Jacobs of Paterson, NJ, who cleared 2.32 m (7' 7¼"), an astounding two feet (0.59 m) over his head; Chinese record-setters Ni-chi Chin and Zhu Jianhua; Germans Gerd Wessig and Dietmar Mögenburg; Swedish Olympic medalist and world record holder Patrik Sjöberg; and female jumpers Iolanda Balaş of Romania, Ulrike Meyfarth of Germany and Italy's Sara Simeoni.

Procedures and rules

In a competition, the bar is initially set at a relatively low height, and is moved upward in set increments (usually 3 or 5 centimetres, approximately 2 inches, but can be as little as 1 cm for record attempts). Each competitor has the option of choosing at which height they wish to start, as long as the height is greater or equal to the designated starting height for that competition. The starting height is usually determined by the games committee for the competition.
Once a competitor has elected to begin, they receive three attempts at each height and once they clear a height, they are cleared until the next height. Competitors can choose whether or not to attempt subsequent heights. A competitor may choose to ''pass'' at a given height or, after failing to clear the bar at a given height, may "pass" on subsequent attempts at that height. Any competitor who records three consecutive misses is out of the competition. The competitor who clears the highest jump is declared the winner. If two or more competitors clear the same maximum height, the competitor with the least number of failed attempts at the best height cleared wins. If these are equal, the winner is the person who has had the least number of failures overall during the competition. If that fails to break a tie for first place, a ''jump off'' is conducted.
In a jump off, competitors are given one additional attempt at the last height attempted. If one of the competitors clears the height, they are considered the winner. If both competitors clear the height, the bar is moved up by 2 cm and the process is completed. If both competitors fail the height the bar is moved back down 2 cm. This process is repeated until one competitor clears a height and the other fails. If the final height of the jump off is less than the highest height cleared during regular competition, the highest height cleared during the competition will be recorded for the results. Heights obtained in such a jump off are eligible for records.

The modern high jump bar is made of glass-reinforced plastic or aluminum. Other materials are allowed, but there are weight and sag restrictions. The bar is approximately 4 metres in length (IAAF rules control length for record purposes), with a round, triangular, or square cross-section for most of its length, and two square resting points at each end. It is placed at a measured height on two ''uprights'', or standards, which allow the bar to rest on its ends at a measured height. Cleared heights are reported by measuring from the take-off level to the top edge of the lowest part of the bar. Directly behind the bar is a soft foam mat that allows for a safe landing. Competitors must jump off one foot to clear the bar. Although they may touch the bar in their clearance, the jump is ruled unsuccessful if the bar falls. In rare instances competitors have been allowed to retry an attempt where the bar has fallen. This may occur if the official declares that the bar fell due to external circumstances such as wind, rain or faulty equipment.

Top performers

Updated August 07, 2007

Men (outdoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.45	Javier Sotomayor		Salamanca	July 23, 1993
2.42	Patrik Sjöberg		Stockholm	June 30, 1987
2.41	Igor Paklin	/	Kobe	September 4, 1985
2.40	Rudolf Povarnitsyn	/	Donetsk	August 11, 1985
	Sorin Matei		Bratislava	June 20, 1990
	Charles Austin		Zurich	August 7, 1991
	Vyacheslav Voronin		London	August 5, 2000
2.39	Jianhua Zhu		Eberstadt	June 10, 1984
	Hollis Conway		Norman	July 30, 1989
2.38	Seven athletes (Avdeyenko, Malchenko, Topic, Kemp, Partyka, Freitag, Sokolovskyy)	-	-	-

Women (outdoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.09	Stefka Kostadinova		Rome	August 30, 1987
2.07	Lyudmila Andonova		Berlin	July 20, 1984
	Blanka Vlašić		Stockholm	August 7, 2007
2.06	Kajsa Bergqvist		Eberstadt	July 26, 2003
	Hestrie Cloete		Paris	August 31, 2003
	Yelena Slesarenko		Athens	August 28, 2004
2.05	Tamara Bykova	/	Kiev	June 22, 1984
	Heike Henkel		Tokyo	August 31, 1991
	Inha Babakova	/	Tokyo	September 15, 1995
2.04	Silvia Costa		Barcelona	September 9, 1989
	Venelina Veneva		Kalamata	June 2, 2001

Men (indoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.43	Javier Sotomayor		Budapest	4 March 1989
2.42	Carlo Thränhardt		Berlin	26 February 1988
2.41	Patrik Sjöberg		Piraeus	1 February 1987
2.40	Hollis Conway		Seville	10 March 1991
	Stefan Holm		Madrid	6 March 2005
2.39	Dietmar Mögenburg		Cologne	24 February 1985
	Ralf Sonn		Berlin	1 March 1991
	Ivan Ukhov		Moscow	28 January 2007
2.38	Eight athletes (Paklin, Avdeyenko, Smith, Beyer, Matei, Hemingway, Rybakov, Thörnblad)	-	-	-

Women (indoor)

Mark	Athlete	Nationality	Venue	Date
2.08	Kajsa Bergqvist		Arnstadt	4 February 2006
2.07	Heike Henkel		Karlsruhe	8 February 1992
2.06	Stefka Kostadinova		Piraeus	20 February 1988
2.05	Blanka Vlašić		Banská Bystrica	14 February 2006
	Tia Hellebaut		Birmingham	3 March 2007
2.04	Alina Astafei		Berlin	3 March 1995
	Anna Chicherova		Yekaterinburg	7 February 2003
	Yelena Slesarenko		Budapest	7 March 2004
2.03	Tamara Bykova		Budapest	6 March 1983
	Monica Iagar		Bucharest	23 January 1999
	Marina Kuptsova		Vienna	2 March 2002

See also

★ List of Olympic medalists in athletics (women)

★ List of Olympic medalists in athletics (men)

★ Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Women's High Jump

★ Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's High Jump

★ World Record progression in athletics high jump men

References

★ ''The Complete Book of Track and Field'', by Tom McNab

★ ''The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2000''

★ All-time list, men outdoor (IAAF)

★ All-time list, women outdoor (IAAF)

★ All-time list, men indoor (IAAF)

★ All-time list, women indoor (IAAF)

External links

★ Jumping Guide

★ High Jump Resource Center