19-year-old launches longest recorded jump in 23 years, but it won't count
If there’s one thing even the most casual of sports fans enjoys, it’s to see a record being broken or some sort of history being made.
If there’s one thing sports fans dislike, it’s when a minor technicality rears its ugly head and mars whatever record or history is being made.
This story happens to feature both.
Nineteen-year-old Juan Miguel Echevarría participated in the IAAF Diamond League games, an annual international series showcasing the world’s most elite track and field stars.
Despite the fact that the Diamond League is, in essence, an all-star competition for track and field enthusiasts, Echevarría’s feat in the long jump still stood out.
The Cuban teenager almost cleared the entire sand pit and genuinely looked like he had successfully learned how to fly from a running takeoff.
Echevarría jumped a mammoth 28 feet and 11.6 inches (8.83 meters), which is ludicrously close to 29 feet.
It was the longest recorded jump since 1995 under any condition. Ivan Pedroso jumped a little over 29 feet (8.93 meters) in the Italian Alps that year.
However, the jump will not be factored into the history books, as Sports Illustrated noted.
Echevarría’s prolific leap was disqualified because he dared to receive some aid from the nature.
According to official rules, jumpers are allowed no more than 2.0 meters per second of aid from the wind. Echevarría had 2.1 meters per second of wind behind him when he made that jump.
Yes, 0.1 meters per second of wind is keeping Echevarría out of the record books.
“The wind reading (2.1m/s) may have made the mark ineligible for record purposes by the smallest margin, but either way, no one doubted that this was one of the greatest jumps in history,” the IAAF said on its website.
For what it’s worth, Echevarría’s jump would’ve gone down as the fifth-longest ever recorded.
The current record for longest jump was performed by Mike Powell, who also cleared the 29-foot mark with a jump measuring 8.95 meters.
Don’t feel too sorry for Echevarría. He still has quite a few accolades under his belt. He won the world indoor long jumping championship in March and followed that up by beating a pair of world championship medalists on Sunday.
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