Jeff Henderson in long jump qualifying at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 (© Getty Images)
It was far from a straightforward qualification round in the men’s long jump.
Shockingly, many top names were in trouble and many did not make it to the final. Just two men qualified automatically, while the Chinese trio also advanced to the final rather convincingly.
USA’s world leader and Pan American Games champion Jeffery Henderson qualified in the first round. The 26-year-old, competing in his first outdoor World Championships, produced the best mark of the day with his opening leap of 8.36m.
Olympic champion Greg Rutherford fouled his first jump, but then unleashed an 8.25m leap on his second attempt, underlining that these two jumpers are the best picks for the gold medal here.
Elsewhere it was not so easy. The athletes who are second, third and fourth on the 2015 world list will not be in the final. Two of these were South Africans and they were accompanied by a third teammate, the 2008 Olympic silver medallist Godfrey Mokoena. The 30-year-old jumped 7.98m, exactly the same result as the athlete in 12th place, Radek Juska, but while the Czech had a second jump of 7.50m, Mokoena only had two fouls, pushing him to 13th on count-back.
World No.2 Zarck Visser, who produced an 8.41m PB this season, was 19th with 7.79m. Fourth in the world this year with 8.38m, Rushwal Samaai jumped the same mark as Visser for 20th place and they were not even close to the final.
Another huge casualty was US Champion Marquis Dendy, who finished 21st behind the South Africans with 7.78m, his only measured jump in addition to two fouls. The 22-year-old won in Eugene with a wind-aided 8.68m jump and a wind-legal 8.39m PB in the series. This is the second consecutive World Championships where Dendy was unable to reach the final.
Teammate Mike Hartfield, competing at his first World Championships, fared much better. He was third overall in the qualification round with 8.13m.
Elsewhere the Chinese trio made the most of the atmosphere on the back straight, not having to work too hard for their places in the final.
World junior champion Wang Jianan, who will turn 19 two days after the final, was fourth overall with a first-round jump of 8.12m. World Championships debutant Gao Xinglong was fifth with 8.11m and world indoor silver medallist Li Jinzhe was sixth with 8.10m.
Frenchman Kafetien Gomis was seventh with 8.09m, but defending champion Aleksandr Menkov had to work hard. The 24-year-old Russian only qualified with his last jump of 8.08m for the eighth place.
Also to the final went Russian Sergey Polyanskiy (8.06m), Tyrone Smith of Bermuda (8.03m) and Australian Fabrice Lapierre (8.03m). Other notable athletes not in the final are Cuba’s 16-year-old world youth champion Maykel Masso and European indoor champion Michel Torneus of Sweden.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
