1991 World Championships in Athletics – Men's long jump

Events at the 1991 World Championships
Track events
100 m		men		women
200 m		men		women
400 m		men		women
800 m		men		women
1500 m		men		women
3000 m				women
5000 m		men
10,000 m		men		women
100 m hurdles				women
110 m hurdles		men
400 m hurdles		men		women
3000 m steeplechase		men
4×100 m relay		men		women
4×400 m relay		men		women
Road events
Marathon		men		women
10 km walk				women
20 km walk		men
50 km walk		men
Field events
Long jump		men		women
Triple jump		men
High jump		men		women
Pole vault		men
Shot put		men		women
Discus throw		men		women
Javelin throw		men		women
Hammer throw		men
Combined events
Heptathlon				women
Decathlon		men
This box:

These are the official results of the Men's Long Jump event at the 1991 IAAF World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. There were a total number of 43 participating athletes, with two qualifying groups and the final held on Friday August 30, 1991.

This was perhaps the greatest long jump competition as both of the top two athletes were credited with distances beyond the existing world record that had stood for almost 23 years. Both (now retired) jumped the best jumps of their careers in this competition, the top two measured jumps in history, the number one and number three best wind-legal jumps in history, the best two not aided by altitude. Carl Lewis' record at the time was: a two time Olympic Gold medalist, two time World Champion and he was considered the best long jumper in the world having been undefeated in ten years. Lewis had set the World Record in the 100 metres 5 days earlier. Lewis was in the lead through four rounds, his first round jump set the championship record, then his third round jump setting his personal wind-legal record. Mike Powell's fourth round jump looked like it was in the range of Lewis, but was ruled a foul, the closeness of the call upset Powell. Powell went down to his knees at the board trying to see the microscopic indentation into the plasticine indicating it was a foul. Lewis' fourth round jump was wind-aided, but with 8.91 m beat the existing world record by 1 cm and to that moment was the longest measured jump in history. Powell's wind legal fifth round jump topped that, setting the world record at 8.95 m. But the competition was not over. Moments later Lewis answered with his lifetime wind-legal personal record. Both athletes still had one jump remaining. While Powell fouled and then prayed, Lewis made his second best wind-legal jump. Thus the competition included the best three wind-legal attempts of Lewis' career, plus a wind-aided attempt beyond the existing world record that he had chased for ten years and he still finished in second place. Since this competition, no athlete, including Powell and Lewis has legally jumped within 20 cm of Powell's world record.

This momentous event achieved another unique occurrence. It was the only time American network television, in this case NBC, devoted over 20 minutes to a single field event competition. See the video in four parts, primarily narrated by Dwight Stones: Part 1 the introduction, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

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