© Stade de France ®
Macary, Zublena et Regembal
Costantini - Architects
ADAGP - Paris - 2002
|
|
COMPETITION  EVENTS |
 A HOP, STEP AND A JUMP FROM GLORY
Paris 2003 Saint-Denis
The triple jump is one of the most technically and physically demanding athletic disciplines in the world. It is also one of the most thrilling, so excitement is guaranteed at the Stade de France® this summer as the greats of the sport gather, each hoping to hop, step and jump their way to World Championships gold.
 |
| Italian Fiona May Vandystadt |
A bit of triple jump history
Contrary to popular belief, triple jump does not owe its origins to Ancient Greece. It was actually invented in Ireland around the 8th century and officially recognised as an athletic discipline towards the mid-19th century. The original Irish version of the triple jump differs from the discipline we know today in that it comprised a hop, followed by another hop and a jump. In the first Olympics of the modern era in Athens in 1896, American James B. Connolly won gold with an “Irish” leap of 13.71m, and this despite the fact that he had arrived in Greece expecting to compete in a hop, step and jump event like those he was used to back in the US. The modern triple jump would replace the hop, hop and jump some ten years later.
After a period of British excellence, it was the Japanese who took over the triple jump in the 1930s. Legendary jumpers Chuhei Nambu and Naoto Tajima disputed world dominance in the pre-war years and Tajima set a new world best of 16m in 1936. Brazilian Adhemar Ferreira Da Silva set about taking the discipline to hitherto unheard-of distances in the post-war period. He stretched the world record to 16.56m in 1955 in Mexico, and ironically it was fellow countryman Joao Carlos de Oliveira who set a similarly astonishing new record twenty years later in the same pit. Carlos de Oliveira’s leap of 17.89m was only beaten by Willie Banks’ 17.97m in 1985, before a host of great jumpers, including Markov, Harrison and Conley fell short in their attempts to break the mythical 18m barrier. Then came Jonathan Edwards…..
How to triple jump
The triple jump is technically far more complicated than its cousin the long jump. It is actually broken down into two main parts – the run-up and the leaping phases.
 |
| Vandystadt |
The athlete tries to generate as much forward energy as possible before he/she reaches the board and then attempt to stay relaxed and conserve horizontal velocity throughout takeoff and all the phases.
The greatest triple jumpers of all time
Jonathan Edwards (GB): The date was 7 August 1995. The event was the World Championship triple jump final in Gothenburg, and as Jonathan Edwards sped down the runway for his first-round jump, no-one had an inkling of what was about to happen. He hit the board spot-on, put in a perfect sequence and landed 18.16m from the board! Edwards had broken the 18m barrier and smashed the world record! And if that wasn’t enough for one day, he then proceeded to break that new world record on his very next jump, this time leaping an incredible 18.29m! In the space of two very long jumps, Edwards had earned his place in triple jump history.
Inessa Kravets (UKR): Those Gothenburg World Championships of 1995 marked a real turning point for the triple jump. Three days after Edwards’ exploits, USSR star Inessa Kravets extended the world record by a massive 41cm, recording a new mark of 15.50m. Women’s triple jump had only been officially recognised in 1990, and Kravets was its first undisputed champion.
 |
| Christian Olsson, the successor Vandystadt |
World records
Women: Inessa Kravets (UKR) 15.50m
Men: Jonathan Edwards (GB) 18.29m
Schedule
Men:
Qualifying: 23 August 2003 - 11.30am
Final: 25 August 2003 - 7.55pm
Women:
Qualifying: 24 August 2003 - 4pm
Final: 26 August 2003 – 7.30pm
|
|
|
|
