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News18 Apr 2002


Tomlinson leaps past Lynn’s mark at last

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Tomlinson leaps past Lynn’s mark at last
Doug Gillon for the IAAF.
19 April 2002 - Richard Nixon had yet to be voted president of the United States, Charles de Gaulle was still president of France, and man had yet to set foot on the moon, but Lynn Davies was already holder of the British record in the men's long jump.

The longevity of the oldest UK record in an Olympic athletics event was one of the great curiosities of the sport.

Davies won the Olympic title in Tokyo (8.19m) having set the first of several UK records two years earlier, in the summer of 1962. He improved it to a best of 8.23 metres in 1968, and there it remained, rooted in time, until the sands ran out on Saturday, April 13, 2002.

Chris Tomlinson, who had never previously gone beyond eight metres without wind assistance (his legal best was 7.87m), soared to 8.27m at a collegiate meeting in Tallahassee.

Big, at 1.97m, and raw of technique, the 20-year-old Tomlinson had four no-jumps, including a foul measured at 8.40m, before his final-round effort, in Florida.

"I was happy to have jumped 8.04m in round two, but my massive no-jump gave me confidence," said the Newham and Essex Beagle club athlete. Davies, who had watched the young Teeside jumper, but believed his technique to be raw in the extreme, is convinced Tomlinson is capable of significant improvement this summer.

Tomlinson thinks: "I could really do with sharpening physically, and getting the flight phase of my jump, but I am not really prepared to say how far."He admits he still had the: "schoolboy through-the-air position, but got a good leg shoot."

The man whom his Welsh compatriots called Lynn The Leap, was stunned by the realisation that, for the first time in almost 40 years, he is no longer British record-holder.

Davies set his first UK best in 1962, won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 1964, and improved his record to 8.23 metres in 1968, but finally saw his name written out by a man who had broken both wrists while weight-training in January.

Tomlinson over-balanced backwards, while holding 107.5 kilos across his chest, in the power-clean position.

Davies, who will be 60 in May, said: ''I thought it might last till then. I jumped 7.72m for the British record in Perth, in 1962, and thought I might hold it for 40 years.''

He believes his mark endured because fast men no longer jump in Britain. ''The key to long jumping is speed. What people forget is that I was also in the 100m at the Olympics, as one of Britain's top three sprinters, and in the relay. That doesn't happen any more. If it did, I'm sure the British record would not have lasted as long. If someone had said it would have, I'd have told them they were crazy.''

He was proud, still, to have been the record-holder, but disappointed no-one had broken through. Among those who tried were Olympic champion Daley Thompson, who reached 8.11m during the 1978 Commonwealth Games decathlon.

Davies thought his Welsh compatriot, world hurdles record holder Colin Jackson, might succeed. ''I thought Colin was going to be the one, and I'm disappointed he didn't have a go, because he could have done it.''

He expected the record to fall this summer, with the Commonwealth Games in the UK, in Manchester. ''Chris is talented but raw, and lacks a bit of consistency and speed,'' added Davies, ''but now he can take the record to 8.30 or 8.35m, and become a contender for the Commonwealths, and Europeans.''

 

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