World and Olympic Record: 8.90m Robert Beamon, United States Mexico City, Mexico 18th October 1968.
Lewis and Myricks had produced a stirring duel in the US Trials, with
Lewis emerging the victor 8.76 to 8.74. Seoul was expected to be sim-
ilarly close. Just five men reached the automatic qualifying mark of
8.00, with 7.77 taken as the 12th finalist. Lewis opened the final with
8.41, followed by teammates Powell (8.23) and Myricks (8.14). No one
else reached 8.10 so the medals were already settled. Lewis
improved to 8.56w in the second round, and Myricks passed Powell
with 8.27. Lewis continued with 8.52, and Powell psyched himself up
to jump a personal best of 8.49.
Myricks, who never performed to his capabilities in the Olympics,
fouled three of his last four jumps, one of them over 8.50, but would
have had to defer to Lewis. The greatest long jumper in history sealed
the event in the fourth round with a monster jump. Barely reaching the
board he landed 8.72 from the front end of the board – 8.90 from where
he took off! Biomechanical analysis of the event gave toe to heel measurements
of 8.57 for Powell and 8.44 for Myricks on their best measured jumps.
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