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|  2004 Jumps Review By A. Lennart Julin & Mirko Jalava December 29, 2004 Courtesy of IAAF
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 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 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 Savante 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 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 Gregorio 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 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 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 Iraklio 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 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 Mexico 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 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, Hrisopiyi Devetzi 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. Devetzi 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
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