1956 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Long Jump (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Long jump
gender	Men
Attendees	32 athletes from 21 countries
Competition location	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Competition phase	November 24, 1956
Medalist Greg Bell ( USA )   John Bennett ( USA )   Jorma Valkama ( FIN )

The men's long jump at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne was played on November 24, 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground . 32 athletes took part.

The American Greg Bell became Olympic champion . He won before his compatriot John Bennett and the Finn Jorma Valkama .

Swiss, Austrian and German athletes did not take part.

Existing records

World record	8.13 m	Jesse Owens ( USA )	Ann Arbor , USA	May 25, 1935
Olympic record	8.06 m		Final of Berlin , Germany	4th August 1936

Note: The Olympic record was officially set at 8.06 m and Jesse Owens was the record holder, despite an irregular tailwind when he jumped.

Conducting the competition

The athletes competed in a qualifying round on November 24th. The required qualification width was 7.15 m. For all qualified jumpers the final took place in the afternoon of the same day. The distances achieved in the qualifying round were not taken into account for the further course of the competition. In the final, each jumper was initially entitled to three attempts. The best six jumpers could then make another three jumps.

Note: The qualified athletes are highlighted in light blue. The best results in the qualification and in the final are printed in bold.

Time schedule

November 24, 10 a.m .: Qualification
November 24, 3:50 p.m .: Final

Note: All times are local Melbourne time (UTC + 10)

qualification

Date: November 24, 1956, 10:00 a.m.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	result	annotation
1	Henryk Grabowski	Poland	7.52 m	-	-	7.52 m
2	John Bennett	United States	7.50 m	-	-	7.50 m
3	Oleg Fyodoseyev	Soviet Union	7.04 m	7.42 m	-	7.42 m
4th	Ken Wilmshurst	Great Britain	6.95 m	7.40 m	-	7.40 m
5	Dmytro Bondarenko	Soviet Union	6.97 m	6.95 m	7.37 m	7.37 m
6th	Jorma Valkama	Finland	7.13 m	6.92 m	7.36 m	7.36 m
7th	Greg Bell	United States	7.35 m	-	-	7.35 m
8th	Roy Cruttenden	Great Britain	7.32 m	-	-	7.32 m
9	Fermín Donazar	Uruguay	7.31 m	-	-	7.31 m
10	Karim Olowu	Nigeria	7.05 m	7.29 m	-	7.29 m
11	Neville Price	South African Union	7.28 m	-	-	7.28 m
12	Kazimierz Kropidłowski	Poland	7.10 m	7.22 m	-	7.22 m
13	Igor Ter-Ovansyan	Soviet Union	7.15 m	-	-	7.15 m
14th	Yoshiro Sonoda	Japan	6.77 m	7.01 m	7.12 m	7.12 m
15th	Masaji Tajima	Japan	6.98 m	x	7.11 m	7.11 m
16	Ling Te-Sheng	Taiwan	6.85 m	6.74 m	7.11 m	7.11 m
17th	Muhammad Ramzan Ali	Pakistan	6.75 m	7.11 m	x	7.11 m
18th	Suh Yong-joo	South Korea	7.08 m	7.09 m	6.92 m	7.09 m
19th	Mike Moroney	Australia	6.72 m	7.09 m	x	7.09 m
20th	Ary de Sá	Brazil	6.86 m	7.00 m	6.97 m	7.00 m
21st	Ödön Földessy	Hungary	6.96 m	6.92 m	6.93 m	6.96 m
22nd	Ram Mehar	India	6.92 m	6.84 m	5.53 m	6.92 m
23	Ian Bruce	Australia	x	6.91 m	6.80 m	6.91 m
24	Hugh Jack	Australia	6.90 m	6.87 m	6.45 m	6.90 m
25th	David Kushnir	Israel	6.09 m	6.89 m	6.66 m	6.89 m
26th	Fred Hammer	Luxembourg	6.74 m	x	x	6.74 m
27	Lawrence Ogwang	Uganda	6.62 m	6.51 m	6.28 m	6.62 m
28	Wilhelm Porrassalmi	Finland	x	6.58 m	x	6.58 m
29	Rafiu Oluwa	Nigeria	x	6.53 m	x	6.53 m
30th	Muhammad Rashid	Pakistan	6.13 m	6.10 m	5.90 m	6.13 m
31	Edward Martins	Liberia	5.79 m	6.01 m	5.96 m	6.01 m
ogV	Torgny Wåhlander	Sweden	x	x	x		without space

final

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Greg Bell	United States	6.98 m	7.83 m	7.77 m	x	-	7.16 m	7.83 m
2	John Bennett	United States	7.68 m	7.61 m	x	-	x	-	7.68 m
3	Jorma Valkama	Finland	7.11 m	x	7.48 m	7.07 m	7.22 m	7.00 m	7.48 m
4th	Dmytro Bondarenko	Soviet Union	7.44 m	x	7.13 m	x	6.89 m	6.99 m	7.44 m
5	Karim Olowu	Nigeria	7.28 m	6.77 m	7.36 m	6.42 m	x	6.91 m	7.36 m
6th	Kazimierz Kropidłowski	Poland	7.27 m	6.92 m	7.30 m	6.95 m	7.03 m	6.94 m	7.30 m
7th	Neville Price	South African Union	x	7.28 m	x	not in the final of the six best jumpers			7.28 m
8th	Oleg Fyodoseyev	Soviet Union	x	7.25 m	7.27 m				7.27 m
9	Roy Cruttenden	Great Britain	7.15 m	x	6.96 m				7.15 m
10	Henryk Grabowski	Poland	x	x	7.15 m				7.15 m
11	Ken Wilmshurst	Great Britain	7.14 m	7.06 m	7.05 m				7.14 m
12	Fermín Donazar	Uruguay	x	x	6.57 m				6.57 m
ogV	Igor Ter-Ovansyan	Soviet Union	x	x	x					without space

Date: November 24, 1956, 3:50 p.m.

13 of the 32 participants made it to the final.
The conditions during this afternoon competition were bad. The athletes had to struggle with strong gusts of wind, and the run-up track was very soft and too short. So the quality of this competition was not as high as might be expected. The request of the athletes to use the run-up from the qualification was rejected by the organizers. It was almost astonishing that the Olympic champion Gregory Bell managed to jump to 7.83 m under these miserable conditions. John Bennett finished second with 7.68 m and Jorma Valkama reached 7.48 m for the bronze medal.

In the 13th Olympic final, Gregory Bell jumped to the twelfth gold medal for the USA.
Jorma Valkama managed to win the first Finnish medal in the long jump .

literature

• Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, pp. 141f

Web links

• SportsReference Long Jump , accessed October 5, 2017
• Official report p. 328f, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
• Melbourne 1956 Official Olympic Film - Part 4 | Olympic History , range 13:51 min - 15:02 min, published July 15, 2015 on youtube.com, accessed October 5, 2017

Individual evidence

1. ↑ IAAF Statistics Handbook, Berlin 2009, page 556 ( Memento from June 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 1st edition 1969, p. 207
3. ↑ ^{a b} Official report p. 284, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
4. ↑ Official report p. 329, engl. (PDF), accessed on October 5, 2017
5. ^ Ekkehard zur Megede , The History of Olympic Athletics, Volume 2: 1948–1968, Verlag Bartels & Wernitz KG, Berlin, 2nd edition 1970, p. 142