Athletics at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Men's triple jump

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Men's triple jump
at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Viktor Saneyev c1972.jpg
Viktor Saneyev (1972)
Venue Estadio Olímpico Universitario
DatesOctober 16–17, 1968
Competitors34 from 24 nations
Winning distance17.39 WR
Medalists
Gold medal icon.svg Viktor Saneyev
Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Silver medal icon.svg Nelson Prudêncio
Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg  Brazil
Bronze medal icon.svg Giuseppe Gentile
Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
  1964
1972  

The men's triple jump competition at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico took place on October 16–17. [1] Thirty-four athletes from 24 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 Viktor Saneyev of the Soviet Union, the first time the nation had won gold in the event (though the fifth consecutive Games in which the Soviets had won at least one medal). Saneyev began a decade of dominating the Olympic triple jump; he would win again in 1972 and 1976 as well as taking silver in 1980. Nelson Prudêncio's silver was Brazil's first medal in the event since 1956; Giuseppe Gentile's bronze was Italy's first men's triple jump medal ever.

Summary

With the best athletes jumping at high altitude in the Olympics, the world record was set multiple times. Prior to the event, Józef Szmidt had held the world record for eight years and also held the Olympic record since the previous Olympics.

The world and Olympic record were smashed in the qualifying round by Giuseppe Gentile, with a 17.10 on his second attempt (after fouling the first).

The following day in the final, Gentile improved upon his record in the first round, jumping 17.22. In the third round, Viktor Saneyev improved upon the record by one centimeter. In the fifth round Nelson Prudêncio took the lead and the record. On his last attempt, Saneyev hit the winner and new record of 17.39 m (57 ft 12 in).

The record lasted for three years until it was improved upon by Pedro Pérez. One year later, Saneyev brought the record with a 17.44 that lasted 3 years. In 1975 in this same stadium, João Carlos de Oliveira made a .45 m (1 ft 5+12 in) "beamonesque" improvement to the record that held for almost 10 years. The record was brought down to sea level by Willie Banks in 1985. [3]

During the competition, five men exceeded the previous world record though Nikolay Dudkin's jumps were wind aided. Phil May and Szmidt jumped further than his Olympic record in sixth and seventh place respectively.

Background

This was the 16th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning finalists from the 1964 Games were gold medalist Józef Szmidt of Poland, bronze medalist Vitold Kreyer of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher Ira Davis of the United States, seventh-place finisher Manfred Hinze of the United Team of Germany, ninth-place finisher Ian Tomlinson of Australia, and twelfth-place finisher Fred Alsop of Great Britain. Szmidt had won the European championship again in 1962 and would have been the favorite but for a recent knee surgery that made his ability to repeat questionable. [2]

The Bahamas, Hong Kong, Madagascar, Romania, and Senegal each made their first appearance in the event. The United States competed for the 16th time, having competed at each of the Games so far.

Competition format

The competition consisted of two rounds, qualification and final. In qualification, each athlete jumped three times. At least the top twelve athletes moved on to the final; if more than twelve reached the qualifying distance of 16.10 metres, all who did so advanced. Distances were reset for the final round. Finalists jumped three times, after which the eight best jumped three more times (with the best distance of the six jumps counted). [4] [2]

Records

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

World recordFlag of Poland.svg  Józef Szmidt  (POL)17.03 Olsztyn, Poland 5 August 1960
Olympic recordFlag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Józef Szmidt  (POL)16.85 Tokyo, Japan 16 October 1964

The following new world and Olympic records were set during this competition.

DateEventAthleteTimeORWR
16 OctoberQualifyingFlag of Italy.svg  Giuseppe Gentile  (ITA)17.10 m (56 ft 1 in)ORWR
17 OctoberFinalFlag of Italy.svg  Giuseppe Gentile  (ITA)17.22 m (56 ft 5+34 in)ORWR
17 OctoberFinalFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Viktor Saneyev  (URS)17.23 m (56 ft 6+14 in)ORWR
17 OctoberFinalFlag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg  Nélson Prudêncio  (BRA)17.27 m (56 ft 7+34 in)ORWR
17 OctoberFinalFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Viktor Saneyev  (URS)17.39 m (57 ft 12 in)ORWR

Schedule

All times are Central Standard Time (UTC-6)

DateTimeRound
Wednesday, 16 October 196810:00Qualifying
Thursday, 17 October 196815:00Final

Results

Qualifying

Qual. rule: qualification standard 16.10m (Q) or at least best 12 qualified (q).

RankGroupAthleteNation123DistanceNotes
1A Giuseppe Gentile Flag of Italy.svg  Italy X17.10 WR 17.10Q, WR
2B Mansour Dia Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal 16.5816.58Q
3B Art Walker Flag of the United States.svg  United States 16.4916.49Q
4B Nelson Prudêncio Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg  Brazil 15.7916.4616.46Q
5A Phil May Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 16.3216.32Q
6B Georgi Stoykovski Flag of Bulgaria (1967-1971).svg  Bulgaria 15.26X16.2416.24Q
7B Viktor Saneyev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 16.2216.22Q
8A Şerban Ciochină Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg  Romania 15.9316.0716.2116.21Q
9B Luis Felipe Areta Flag of Spain (1945-1977).svg  Spain 15.9416.2016.20Q
10B Joachim Kugler Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  West Germany 15.7916.2016.20Q
11A Józef Szmidt Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Poland X16.1916.19Q
12B Henrik Kalocsai Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 15.4416.1616.16Q
13B Nikolay Dudkin Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 15.8116.1516.15Q
14B Jan Jaskólski Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Poland 15.7916.0416.04
15A Michael Sauer Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  West Germany 15.6116.0215.8416.02
16A Derek Boosey Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 15.0715.9916.0116.01
17A Norman Tate Flag of the United States.svg  United States 13.4315.8415.8315.84
18B Pertti Pousi Flag of Finland.svg  Finland X15.8415.7415.84
19A Yukito Muraki Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg  Japan X15.3715.8315.83
20A Tim Barrett Flag of the Bahamas (1964-1973).svg  Bahamas X15.0615.7915.79
21A Dave Smith Flag of the United States.svg  United States XX15.7515.75
22A Evangelos Vlasis Flag of Greece (1828-1978).svg  Greece 15.4715.5215.7115.71
23B Fred Alsop Flag of the United Kingdom (3-2).svg  Great Britain 12.9315.7115.5015.71
24B Johnson Amoah Flag of Ghana.svg  Ghana 15.6515.2815.6515.65
25B Aşkın Tuna Flag of Turkey.svg  Turkey 15.65X15.4315.65
26B Heinz-Günter Schenk Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  East Germany X14.7215.6115.61
27B Dragán Ivanov Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 15.61X14.4215.61
28A Samuel Igun Flag of Nigeria.svg  Nigeria 15.4013.8615.4615.46
29A Aleksandr Zolotarev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 15.4114.72X15.41
30B Lennox Burgher Flag of Jamaica.svg  Jamaica 15.2015.2915.1415.29
31A Chen Ming-Chi Flag of the Republic of China.svg  Taiwan 15.2915.0414.7615.29
32A Klaus Neumann Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  East Germany 15.16X15.16
33B Héctor Serrate Flag of Puerto Rico (1952-1995).svg  Puerto Rico 15.0915.0514.8915.09
34A Zoltán Cziffra Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 15.04X15.04
A Labh Singh Flag of India.svg  India DNS

Final

RankAthleteNation123456DistanceNotes
Gold medal icon.svg Viktor Saneyev Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 16.4916.8417.23 WR 17.0216.8117.39 WR 17.39 WR
Silver medal icon.svg Nelson Prudêncio Flag of Brazil (1968-1992).svg  Brazil 16.3317.0516.75X17.27 WR 17.1517.27 AR
Bronze medal icon.svg Giuseppe Gentile Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 17.22 WR XXX16.54X17.22 AR
4 Art Walker Flag of the United States.svg  United States 15.4316.4516.7716.48X17.1217.12 AR
5 Nikolay Dudkin Flag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union 16.1516.7016.3716.7317.0916.5317.09 NR
6 Phil May Flag of Australia.svg  Australia 15.4816.5816.5117.02X17.02 AR
7 Józef Szmidt Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Poland 16.0616.77X16.66X16.8916.89
8 Mansour Dia Flag of Senegal.svg  Senegal 16.7116.4815.4416.7316.6415.8316.73
9 Georgi Stoykovski Flag of Bulgaria (1967-1971).svg  Bulgaria 16.2816.4616.19Did not advance16.46
10 Henrik Kalocsai Flag of Hungary.svg  Hungary 16.4516.3916.20Did not advance16.45
11 Joachim Kugler Flag of the German Olympic Team (1960-1968).svg  West Germany 12.87X15.90Did not advance15.90
12 Luis Felipe Areta Flag of Spain (1945-1977).svg  Spain 15.7215.7514.80Did not advance15.75
13 Şerban Ciochină Flag of Romania (1965-1989).svg  Romania XX15.62Did not advance15.62

References

  1. "Athletics at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games: Men's Triple Jump". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "Triple Jump, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  3. Mens High Jump at Sports Reference
  4. "Mexico City 1968 high jump men Results - Olympic athletics".