SA Footy

Jesse Owen's Magic Hour

...came between 3.15pm and 4.00pm on 25 May 1935 at the Big Ten inter-collegiate championships at Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In spite of a strained back sustained while playing touch football, the athlete (who would go on to take four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics 14 months later) persuaded his coach Larry Snyder to let him run the 100 yards. In that event he equalled the world record of 9.4 seconds and in fact was probably under it as in those days timing was by hand and the judges rounded up the figure. In the next 60 minutes, Owens went on to set three more world records - the first time any athlete had set multiple world records in track and field events on the same day. Here's how it unfolded:

3.00pm - 100 yard dash - 9.4 seconds
3.29pm - long jump - 26ft 8.25 inches
3.40pm - 220 yards - 20.3 seconds
4.00pm - 220 yard hurdles - 22.6 seconds.

Owens' long jump record remains the longest standing men's world record of all time. It would not be broken until 12 August 1960.

Source: Fotheringham 2003 p 64.

The long jump record set then, would be close to 9 metres wouldn't it?

8 metres = 26 ft 8 inches


further info From Wikipedia...

The long jump is notable for two of the longest-standing world records in any track and field event. In 1935, Jesse Owens set a long jump world record that was not broken until 1960 by Ralph Boston. Later, Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 meters (29 feet, 2-1/2 inches) at the 1968 Summer Olympics, a jump not exceeded until 1991. On August 30 of that year, Mike Powell of the USA leapt 8.95 meters at the World Championships in Tokyo. Some jumps over 8.95 meters have been officially recorded (8.99 meters by Mike Powell himself, 8.96 meters by Ivan Pedroso), but were not validated since there was either no reliable wind speed measurement available, or because wind speed exceeded 2.0 m/s. The current world record for women is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former Soviet Union who leapt 7.52 meters in Leningrad in 1988.

Poland's Stella Walsh (Stanislawa Walasiewicz) was the first woman to break the 12 second barrier for the 100m when she recorded a time of 11.9 seconds to win gold at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles and, in the course of her career, set 37 athletics world records. When she was killed by robbers in 1980, an autopsy revealed that she was a hermaphrodite, having both male and female sexual organs.

Squawk wrote: The current world record for women is held by Galina Chistyakova of the former Soviet Union who leapt 7.52 meters in Leningrad in 1988.

Funny how this record still stands, along with the womens 800 m and 100 m since they announced out of competition testing in 1989.......

Womens times at the Sydney 2000 Olympics were 10 s outside the 800 m WR. Funny how MArion is back in the pack since the Balco case......

Tennis in the UK was originally played in a walled court. This version of the sport, known nowadays as Real (ie Royal) Tennis was popularised in England in the 15th and 16th centuries, particularly at court during the reign of Henry VIII.

Henry VIII was an addicted gambler and many of his financial problems were due to his massive wagers on the Real Tennis court. Indeed, he had a servant to throw the ball up in the air for him because he was too fat to do it for himself. There is an entry in one set of old accounts in 1531 that records the payment of five shillings to "one who served on the King's side at Tennes", hence the word "service".

Legend also has it that Henry VIII heard of the execution of his Queen Anne Boleyn as he played tennis at Hampton Court Palace (about 6 miles from Wimbledon).

Olympic regulations governing badminton state that the shuttlecock must have 14 feathers.

The name given to victories in the Open and Amateur Golf Championships of Britain and America, a unique feat achieved by Bobby Jones in the summer of 1930, after which he retired to concentrate on his law practice in Atlanta, and founded the Augusta National course and the Masters tournament.

Winners at the first two Olympics of the modern era did not receive gold medals. Instead, they were rewaqrded with a silver medal, a diploma and a crown of olive leaves. Runners up received a bronze medal and a crown of laurel. Gold medals were introduced at the 1904 St Louis Olympics.