Athletics at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Men's long jump

Men's long jump
at the Games of the XX Olympiad
Men's long jump; at the Games of the XX Olympiad
	Olympic Stadium (2014)
Venue	Olympic Stadium, Munich, West Germany
Dates	8 September 1972 ; 9 September 1972
Competitors	36 from 25 nations
Winning distance	8.24
Medalists
	← 1968 1976 →

The men's long jump event at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich was held on 8 & 9 of September.^[1] Thirty-six athletes from 25 nations competed.^[2] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by 6cm by Randy Williams of the United States, the nation's second consecutive and 15th overall gold medal in the men's long jump. Hans Baumgartner earned West Germany's first medal in the event (Germany had taken silver in 1936).

Background

This was the 17th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The returning finalists from the 1968 Games were fourth-place finisher (and 1960 and 1964 bronze medalist) Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of the Soviet Union, seventh-place finisher Jack Pani of France (who did not start this time), ninth-place finisher (and 1964 gold medalist) Lynn Davies of Great Britain, eleventh-place finisher Leonid Barkovskyy of the Soviet Union, and thirteenth-place finisher (and 1964 finalist) Michael Ahey of Ghana. The favorite was Arnie Robinson of the United States.^[2]

Bolivia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, and Togo each made their first appearance in the event. The United States appeared for the 17th time, the only nation to have long jumpers at each of the Games thus far.

Competition format

The 1972 competition used the two-round format with divided final introduced in 1952. The qualifying round gave each competitor three jumps to achieve a distance of 7.80 metres; if fewer than 12 men did so, the top 12 (including all those tied) would advance. The final provided each jumper with three jumps; the top eight jumpers received an additional three jumps for a total of six, with the best to count (qualifying round jumps were not considered for the final).^[2]^[3]

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record	Bob Beamon (USA)	8.90	Mexico City, Mexico	18 October 1968
Olympic record	Bob Beamon (USA)	8.90	Mexico City, Mexico	18 October 1968

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

Qualifying and the final were held on separate days for the first time since 1920.

All times are Central European Time (UTC+1)

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 8 September 1972	10:30	Qualifying
Saturday, 9 September 1972	15:20	Final

Results

Qualifying

All jumpers reaching 7.80 m (25 ft 7 in), shown in blue and the top 12 including ties, shown in green, advanced to the final round.^[4]^[5]

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Group	1	2	3	Distance	Notes
1	Randy Williams	United States	A	8.34	—	—	8.34	Q
2	Preston Carrington	United States	B	8.22	—	—	8.22	Q
3	Grzegorz Cybulski	Poland	A	7.61	8.01	—	8.01	Q
4	Arnie Robinson	United States	B	7.99	—	—	7.99	Q
5	Leonid Barkovskyy	Soviet Union	A	7.66	7.98	—	7.98	Q
6	Hans Baumgartner	West Germany	A	7.98	—	—	7.98	Q
7	Max Klauß	East Germany	B	7.93	—	—	7.93	Q
7	Joshua Owusu	Ghana	B	7.93	—	—	7.93	Q
9	Valeriy Podluzhniy	Soviet Union	A	7.91	—	—	7.91	Q
10	Ari Väänänen	Finland	A	7.67	7.90	—	7.90	Q
11	Alan Lerwill	Great Britain	B	7.86	—	—	7.86	Q
12	Jacques Rousseau	France	A	7.77	7.79	7.51	7.79	q
13	Igor Ter-Ovanesyan	Soviet Union	B	X	7.77	X	7.77
14	Jaroslav Brož	Czechoslovakia	A	7.76	X	7.74	7.76
15	Bruce Field	Australia	A	X	7.59	7.76	7.76
16	Rolf Bernhard	Switzerland	A	7.30	7.68	7.61	7.68
17	Gábor Katona	Hungary	A	X	7.68	X	7.68
18	Lynn Davies	Great Britain	A	7.64	7.53	X	7.64
19	Josef Schwarz	West Germany	B	7.63	X	7.62	7.63
20	Jerzy Homziuk	Poland	A	7.63	X	X	7.63
21	Finn Bendixen	Norway	A	7.46	7.45	7.61	7.61
22	Andreas Gloerfeld	West Germany	B	X	7.60	X	7.60
23	Wilfredo Maisonave	Puerto Rico	B	7.35	7.58	X	7.58
24	Christian Tourret	France	B	7.54	7.53	7.55	7.55
25	Carol Corbu	Romania	A	7.54	7.52	7.46	7.54
26	Henry Jackson	Jamaica	A	7.11	7.24	7.50	7.50
27	Milán Matos	Cuba	B	7.42	7.46	7.47	7.47
28	Takayoshi Kawagoe	Japan	B	7.45	7.47	6.72	7.47
29	Michael Ahey	Ghana	A	X	7.39	—	7.39
30	Mohinder Singh Gill	India	A	X	X	7.30	7.30
31	Martin Adouna	Togo	B	7.21	7.25	7.10	7.25
32	Linus Rebmann	Switzerland	B	X	7.25	5.68	7.25
33	Chen Chin-Long	Republic of China	B	6.79	X	X	6.79
34	Lionel Caero	Bolivia	A	6.77	6.60	6.52	6.77
35	Bilal Said Al-Azma	Saudi Arabia	A	6.32	6.15	6.16	6.32
—	Jesper Tørring	Denmark	B	X	X	X	No mark
—	Mansor Dia	Senegal	A	DNS
	Patrich Onyango	Kenya	A	DNS
	Jack Pani	France	A	DNS
	Jong Gu Hyon	North Korea	A	DNS
	Milan Spasojević	Yugoslavia	B	DNS
	Samuela Yavala	Fiji	B	DNS
	Byambajavyn Enkhbaatar	Mongolia	B	DNS
	Luiz Carlos de Souza	Brazil	B	DNS
	Jan Kobuszewski	Poland	B	DNS
	Samuel Igun	Nigeria	B	DNS
	Dennis Freeman	Liberia	B	DNS
	Giuseppe Gentile	Italy	B	DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Distance
	Randy Williams	United States	8.24	7.32	7.72	7.80	7.77	—	8.24
	Hans Baumgartner	West Germany	X	7.99	8.18	x	7.83	8.05	8.18
	Arnie Robinson	United States	X	7.89	7.95	X	8.03	X	8.03
4	Joshua Owusu	Ghana	7.71	7.77	7.88	7.70	7.98	8.01	8.01
5	Preston Carrington	United States	7.99	X	X	7.95	7.63	7.69	7.99
6	Max Klauß	East Germany	7.51	7.94	7.96	7.86	6.13	7.88	7.96
7	Alan Lerwill	Great Britain	X	7.91	7.69	X	7.78	7.85	7.91
8	Leonid Barkovskyy	Soviet Union	7.56	7.53	7.75	7.61	7.56	X	7.75
9	Valeriy Podluzhniy	Soviet Union	X	7.56	7.72	Did not advance			7.72
10	Jacques Rousseau	France	7.65	7.37	7.52	Did not advance			7.65
11	Ari Väänänen	Finland	7.62	7.57	7.60	Did not advance			7.62
12	Grzegorz Cybulski	Poland	7.44	7.58	7.53	Did not advance			7.58